I DON'T GET WHY IT'S KENNY FOR YOUR THOUGHTS

HEARTS suspect Celtic's bottle might be on the verge of crashing - and that's why they're tooling up for the second half of the championship.

One false move from Gordon Strachan's side and the Jambos, with the addition of inspired signings such as Neil McCann, will be waiting to pounce.

All of the negative publicity has stopped coming out of Tynecastle and the headlines that create unrest have moved over to the other end of the M8 at Celtic Park.

The Clyde result in the Scottish Cup, Stilian Petrov's future, Roy Keane's best position, who's coming in and who's moving out? It's a time of uncertainty for Celtic and that has started to show.

Hearts have had their blip on the park and come through it without sustaining too much damage. Their 4-1 win at Dunfermline was a statement of intent.

But Celtic have ceased to win any game convincingly and it was amazing to hear Gordon say on Saturday his team might have to score three goals to be sure of winning any match.

Their nerve is going to be tested because the outcome of the title race is anything but cut and dried.

Hearts are at Kilmarnock on Saturday and if they win there and cut the deficit between Celtic and themselves to just four points, it will put tremendous pressure on the leaders when they go to Motherwell 24 hours later.

Fir Park at the end of last season still leaves a lot of excess baggage in the minds of the Celtic fans.

And then there was the never-to-be-forgotten 44 draw on the first day of this term.

There'll be no Stephen McManus for Celtic at Motherwell because of suspension, which means Roy Keane will need to stay at the back whether he wants to be there or not. I would imagine Adam Virgo will need to play beside him, even though he must have felt he'd suffered a slap in the face by being left out for the game against Killie.

It's not that being left out for Keane is a problem but Virgo would have felt he'd have been a fixture by this time after his £1.5million move from Brighton.

His place in the pecking order will be under greater pressure when Gary Caldwell arrives from Hibs. I watched him play in the defeat to Aberdeen and Gary was at fault for the first goal.

A small minority had booed him when he first touched the ball but by the time he was on his fourth or fifth touch the vast majority were cheering him. And that's the way it should be.

Petrov has said he's leaving Celtic when his contract expires in 18 months, so what are the crowd supposed to do to him in the meantime? The Celtic fans didn't barrack the best of them all, Henrik Larsson, when he announced the deadline on his time at the club.

When I played with Borussia Dortmund, the German fans understood when players moved on from club to club. They never took anything as a personal slight.

Caldwell will be a good acquisition for Celtic. He's better than Strachan has at his disposal as he'll be able to break from the back and use the ball intelligently.

The piece of transfer talk I don't really understand is Celtic seemingly being interested in Kenny Miller now that his contract at Wolves is set to expire.

Celtic have four men going for two places through the middle - John Hartson, Maciej Zurawski, Craig Beattie and Shaun Maloney - so getting another player of the same sort isn't a priority.

The obvious need lies in the full-back positions.

Miller would also find it difficult to switch sides in the Old Firm battle. Full acceptance never comes your way, something with which Mo Johnston would agree.

Taken from the Daily Record