IT’S League Cup final week and anticipation is reaching fever pitch.

The Bhoys go into the Hampden Park clash against their greatest rivals in magnificent form, having not dropped a point since the draw at Ibrox on January 2.

Rangers, meanwhile, are on a solid run themselves and comfortably saw off Livingston at Almondvale on Saturday, even if they did get another penalty and Livi had a man sent off.

In fact, Rangers have been awarded four spot-kicks in their last 10 games and had an opposition player shown red in four of the last eight. Call it anxiety or mere intuition, but it’s safe to assume that VAR will play a more featured role than needs be on Sunday (kick-off 3pm).

Despite Michael Beale grinding out a run of victories, the ‘peepul’ have made no secret of what they deem to be acceptable standards. At Livingston, they held displayed a banner which read: “Two trophies in eleven years. Uphold the standards that matter”.

I don’t know what they want. After all, that’s not bad for a club that only came into existence after the old entity was liquidated in 2012. For much of that time they’ve had very little money (still don’t, actually) and had to start from scratch in the lower leagues.

And they surprised just about everyone by coming within a penalty shootout of winning the Europa League last season.

Celtic, on the other hand, have enjoyed total domination of Scottish football and seemed content just with this, allowing their standing in European football to decline dramatically.

But with Sunday being a cup final, neither team can settle for a point and must raise their levels to claim the silverware.

The Hoops didn’t have a good game at Ibrox last month and yet still couldn’t be defeated. If they come into this match with the same approach, then things could go pear-shaped.

However, come close to the scintillating performance of last September that saw them hammer Rangers 4-0, and it will be a comfortable day with another trophy in the Parkhead cabinet.

The Scottish media has already started to stir the pot. The Daily Record’s Keith Jackson claims that Beale has been shown a lack of respect by Celtic fans, saying they’ve demonstrated an “unwillingness to acknowledge the improvements that Beale has been busy carrying out” and their view that the Englishman isn’t on the level of Ange Postecoglou smacks of presumptuousness and complacency.

You can’t be complacent going into a cup final, but the Celtic faithful have the right to be quietly confident. It’s not a gimme and Rangers showed last month that they can cause the Bhoys problems. But we should remember that the team selection that day was unusual, with James Forrest in the starting XI, which is like being a man down.

That may sound harsh on Jamesy who has contributed so much to the club, but he has very seldom produced against the other side in Glasgow and last time was no different.
Going into Sunday, the Bhoys should have a full-strength squad to choose from.

There is some concern over the availability of Aaron Mooy after he was absent from the 4-0 win over Aberdeen on Saturday. Postecoglou explained that 32-year-old sat out after pulling up with a “sore one”, but it didn’t sound as if it was anything too serious.

Kyogo started on the bench against the Dons following a shoulder injury against St Mirren a few weeks back, though he did replace Hyeongyu Oh, who impressed in his first start with his physicality and workrate.

It’s a no-brainer that Kyogo will get the nod at Hampden, but he does need to show more against Rangers.

Yes, he sealed the equaliser at Ibrox, but he has a tendency to drift in the derbies and they have passed him by on a few occasions.

Rangers have a strong defence which Giorgos Giakoumakis was more suited to dealing with, so if Kyogo can’t penetrate their guard, don’t be surprised to see Oh getting thrown in.

Speaking of Giakoumakis, after finally moving to Atlanta United for £4.3m, he has taken a few digs at the lack of competitiveness in Scottish football.

In a pre-match interview ahead of the beginning of the season, he said: “I love the way they do it here. It seems like America loves the game of football. And one of the big attractions for me is that the MLS is a very competitive league. There are always different champions every season.”

Not many would argue that competition isn’t strong in Scotland, predominantly down to a lack of money and poor support bases outside of Celtic and Rangers. It’ll be interesting to see how the big Greek does in the footballing mecca that is America. Either way, I’m sure he’s happy with his wages.

I’ll round off this week with how I started the last column, by addressing the rumours about the future of Postecoglou.

An Australian radio presenter, Andy Maher, insists he has been personally told that Ange will ditch Glasgow for pastures new at the end of this season – most likely to Leeds United, but this hinges on whether they remain in the Premier League.

He told SEN’s The Home Run: “I’ve got a snout who’s quite hooked into Australian soccer. He’s given me a steer here and there and on enough occasions, he’s been right.

“Gives me a call this morning adamant that this will be Ange Postecoglou’s last year at Celtic, and he will be leaving at the end of the year. And that he will be, it depends on survival in the Premier League, he will be taking one of two positions. But predominantly and most likely it will be the position at Leeds.”

Now, as I write this, former Watford boss Javi Garcia is 1/20 to take over at Elland Road, whereas Ange is 33/1.

Of course, the bookies don’t always get it right, and even if Garcia does get the gig, there’s no guarantee he’ll be in charge by the end of May. We know how trigger-happy English clubs are. And Ange will know that, too. Enjoy the final!