WITHOUT looking like world beaters, Celtic duly wrapped up the double treble with their victory over Motherwell in the Scottish Cup Final on Saturday.

A lot was made of the "history bhoys" and rightly so, because the domestic treble has never been achieved for two seasons running since the League Cup was established in season 1946-47.

You could argue that Celtic had actually achieved the domestic double treble before, because in both seasons 1906-07 and 1907-08 the Parkhead club won the League, Scottish Cup and Glasgow Cup which was then the third most prestigious trophy in Scottish football. Rangers won the same treble in 1935-36 but had lost to Partick Thistle in the Glasgow Cup final of the previous season or else they, too, could have claimed a double treble of sorts.

Apart from Aberdeen under Sir Alex Ferguson in 1983-84, no other team in Scottish football has even won the double since the Scottish League was founded in 1890, and that is the real measure of Celtic’s achievement. To be so dominant over two complete seasons really is unprecedented, certainly in the post-war era.

In season 2018-19, Celtic will have a serious chance of equalling Rangers’ Scottish record of 18 league and Scottish Cup doubles, the last of which was won in 2008-09. Celtic’s win on Saturday was their 17th league and cup double, and before anyone reaches for the record books, both the Glasgow clubs are well short of the world and European record for league and cup doubles – that accolade is held by Linfield of Northern Ireland with 24.

You might say that all of these records just prove that Celtic and Rangers are streets ahead of the rest of Scottish football in historic terms, and Celtic are undoubtedly far out in front of everyone else at the moment.

Brendan Rodgers has indeed turned the Parkhead club around and he already deserves his place in the pantheon of great Celtic managers, but he well knows that to be judged alongside the likes of Jock Stein and Martin O’Neill, he needs to be successful in Europe.

The governing body of European football has made it even more difficult for Celtic to make it to the Champions League this season, and that is just plain wrong and unfair. The pandering to the Big Four leagues – actually the Big Six because France and Russia also get extra places – by Uefa is now utterly against the spirit of football, but Uefa knows full well that unless it toadies to the big clubs, the big leagues and the big broadcasters, they might all just get together and walk away by setting up their own competitions. And to be honest, there’s nothing Uefa could do about that.

Looking at the teams Celtic might face in the first, second and third qualifying rounds plus the play-off round, there are some huge names in the road of Celtic’s dream of another Champions League group stage.

Along with Celtic, Legia Warsaw, Red Star Belgrade, AEK Athens and PSV Eindhoven are all in the Champions Path of the qualifying rounds, as UEFA call it, and while Celtic may not play any of them, it does show the calibre of club which Uefa has deemed will only make it into the group stage with a helluva fight.

I expect Celtic to make it to at least the play-off round, but qualification for the Champions League group stages proper is absolutely no gimme, and it may well be that Celtic will have to content themselves with Europa League football next season.

Even if they make the group stages, Celtic will find it almost insanely tough to make the last 16 or finish third in a group to enter the Europa League, especially when you look at the names Uefa’s finaglings have lined up for the groups already – Barcelona, both Madrid clubs, both Manchester clubs, this year’s finalists Liverpool, Juventus, Napoli, Roma, Bayern and the rest.

One good move by Uefa is that all the clubs who drop out in the qualifying rounds of the Champions League parachute into the Europa League at various qualifying stages, but that could mean Aberdeen, Rangers and Hibs having to take on seriously good teams as they attempt to qualify.

For Celtic, however, domestic supremacy is no longer enough. Brendan Rodgers knows that serious European success – and by that I mean reaching the last eight of either tournament at least – is what is needed to confirm himself as Celtic’s best manager of this century.

Rodgers will have to find the players and the tactics to win in Europe if his lofty reputation is to grow even higher. Even a Treble Treble yell will choke in Celtic fans’ throats if the club has no European success.