Whether the Celtic supporters' silent protests will force change at the top of the club remains to be seen. To matters on the pitch, they will have no impact whatsoever, insists Luke McCowan.
Although the midfielder could oddly hear his teammates without a problem for the first 12 minutes on Saturday against Hibernian with the atmosphere flat, he believes the Parkhead faithful are entitled to convey their disapproval. "They're going to express themselves, aren’t they? It’s what fans do," said McCowan.
"It won't matter if they're expressing themselves against us or against the board or whatever it may be. We just know that our full focus is on the pitch and on the team.
"It's probably easier when you're on the pitch and you're just playing football and forgetting about it. That's the easiest way to deal with it. When you're on that pitch, the only thing that matters is putting the ball in the back of the net, to be honest.
"You don't have anything else. Personally, I only think that it won't matter if they're quiet or if they're singing. It's fully focused on that. Long may that continue to be the message for our team.
"As we said before the game, what we're doing on the pitch is the main thing that we can contribute to. We just need to keep focused on ourselves. If the fans are doing whatever, then that's on them. It's not in our control. We just need to control what we can, and that is the stuff on the pitch.
"The first 12 minutes, I could actually hear people talking to me, which was a bit strange. But the fans are doing what they want, and that's fair enough to them. We just need to keep fully focused on ourselves."
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Celtic 'not worrying' about Hearts
As a result of drawing a blank against Hibs, Celtic were ousted from top spot by the other side of Edinburgh. Heart of Midlothian defeated Falkirk 3-0 on Saturday to move two points clear at the summit of the William Hill Premiership.
Because Aberdeen fell off a cliff last season after a fast start, McCowan isn't worried about the threat posed by Tony Bloom, Derek McInnes and co... yet. "It's the same every season, isn’t it? There's always a team that pushes us," continued McCowan.
"It's always the question. Last year it was Aberdeen, they started like a house on fire. Hearts as well have started like a house on fire, performing well. It's so early, there’s so many games to play.
"We're not eyeballing Hearts and worrying about them or anything like that. It's more worrying about ourselves.
"It's making sure that we're at it. That's always been the way Celtic play. We come first and we make sure that we're doing the things that we're good at throughout the season. If we keep up what we're doing, it won't matter what Hearts do. It's about the levels of performance Celtic put in.
"It's a level of expectation at this club. You need to put that pressure on yourself and you need to accept that pressure of league champions.
"You need to go and show why you won the league before. But knowing that winning it the year before means absolutely nothing. It's about pushing on and pushing on and then that throughout the full season.
"It won't matter if Hearts are there or not. It's about us. We don't want to prove to anybody. We know we can put on performances.
"We've found our feet early doors. We've not lost a game yet. We're doing well, clean sheets, whatever it may be. It's about performance levels, as we said.
"If you have enough of them, it'll lead to three points. We just know that with more performances like Saturday, it'll come."
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Celtic not clinical enough
Celtic registered 26 shots on goal against Hibs and created seven big chances. Kelechi Iheanacho and Marcelo Saracchi both hit the bar in the first half, with Arne Engels, Paulo Bernardo, and Johnny Kenny all going close in the second.
It felt like they could've played all evening and not found a way past Raphael Sallinger. "In other games, you probably come away, you score a few, the game's kind of done and put to bed when you have those three, four, five chances," said McCowan.
"You create chances in every game. You want to put as many chances away as you can. Sometimes they don't fall for you. We hit the bar a couple of times, the keeper saves it. There were probably a few chances there where, if we're hard on ourselves, we should be putting away.
"Listen, in other games, they’ll be put away, and you come away from the game with three points."
McCowan wants Celtic to rediscover their 'superpower'
Eleven games into last season, Celtic had scored 36 goals. At the same juncture this campaign, they have found the net 17 times.
To add insult to injury, Hearts, Motherwell, Dundee United, Hibs, and Kilmarnock have all netted more times in the league than the champions so far in 2025/26.
Having also scored just four first-half goals all season, McCowan says Celtic need to rediscover what he described as their 'superpower'. "It probably still can be our biggest strength. - getting out quick and scoring goals really, really early in games," he admitted.
"If that doesn't happen, it's about not getting frustrated and getting into second halves and knowing that if we work the ball well then we're going to create many more opportunities. It has been a superpower, but it's about knowing that we can get back to that."
Brendan Rodgers clearly has problems in attack and even admitted before the Hibs game that he had to do some juggling thanks to his frontline's lopsided nature. He can have no complaints, though, about the strength of his midfield.
"The centre-mid area is probably our strongest and we know that," insisted McCowan. "It's about everybody chipping in and helping each other and pushing each other in training every day and being mentally strong within that position.
"Because you know there's going to be a lot of changes each week with games coming nearly every three or four days. It's just about being ready, everyone, and pushing each other as hard as we can.
"It's trying to make it as seamless as possible when you're making changes in the team. It's days like today when I get more opportunities, I need to try and take them, obviously with assists or goals or whatever.
"But if that doesn't happen, then it's about performance levels. I think I did that, but I just need to keep doing it and help the team."
Back on the agenda for Celtic this week is the UEFA Europa League. Building on an admirable point in Belgrade is a must as Braga visit Glasgow's east end on Thursday evening.
"I can't speak for everybody, obviously, but I want to try and play as many minutes as I can in that competition," continued McCowan. "It's another European competition for me that I haven't played in before. So I am looking forward to Thursday and bring on the challenge of top European sides coming to Parkhead.
"That's a great opportunity for us - the home games, we know that. If we were hard on ourselves again, last week we probably had the game there. It was a great opportunity for us away from home. But when it comes to home games, we need to put on a real top-level performance to go and get the victories."
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