I wouldn't bet on Celtic earning a DRAW at Dens because they look a team trying to get away with one – Hugh Keevins

I won't be rushing to put the grandchildren’s inheritance on Celtic winning, or even getting a draw, against Dundee this afternoon.

In order to follow the official guidelines about gambling responsibly, how would it be right to take a punt on a defence that couldn’t keep pigeons out of a loft? Two clean sheets in their last 10 matches? A Scottish Cup display against Aberdeen last weekend that was a masterclass in profligacy at the back? A season-long habit of losing late goals when they used to be heralded as the side who won matches at the death?

Celtic might be preparing to secure the title by now if they hadn’t, through Yang Hyun-jun, shown defensive ineptitude on a destructive level when they had a 3-2 lead over Rangers in time added on at Ibrox three weeks ago. The general impression given is that Celtic look like a side trying to get away with one while attempting to become Premiership champions for a third time in a row.

They don’t look like one with an implicit belief in their qualifications for deserving to take the ultimate prize. Brendan Rodgers is the victim of a potentially ruinous recruitment policy that brought in a series of multi-million pound signings like Gustaf Lagerbielke, Maik Nawrocki and Yuki Kobayashi, along with a spectacularly ill-fitting loanee in Nat Phillips.

The latter has gone back to Liverpool. The Japanese has vanished without trace. And the two who cost over £7million can’t be trusted, under any circumstances, to start matches.

Even during the course of a season when their best defender Cameron Carter-Vickers has been able to play only 12 games from start to finish because of recurring injury problems. It is a grotesque example of flawed judgment on the part of a recruitment department