The 'beautiful' reality of playing for Celtic means signing autographs and 80-year-old nans giving you it TIGHT

It's weird and it's 'not normal' – but Alistair Johnston wouldn't have it any other way

For a second or two that trademark broad smile lit up all over his face.

Just the thought of how bizarre his life has become these days, here in the heart of Scottish football’s auditorium, makes him want to laugh.

Alistair Johnston has familiarised himself with the extremities of the environment for long enough to know there was always likely to be an argument about whether Rangers should afford Celtic with a guard of honour, in the event the champions turn up at Ibrox on May 4 with another title already added to the collection.

These local skirmishes and the general levels of eye popping angst they generate simply don’t occur back home in Canada. Or almost anywhere else in the world for that matter.

Which is precisely why he’s fallen so head over heels for the life he has been building here over these last two and half years. In a city like no other.

“It’s not normal,” was how he put it yesterday at Celtic’s Lennoxtown HQ. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Asked if he has come to enjoy the fact this peculiar part of the world can fall out with itself over almost anything he grinned again and said: “Yeah and that’s one of the beauties of it up here as well. It’s something that’s bigger than just football, it really is.

“It takes over people’s entire lives, for good and bad in some ways. But, as a player, you’ve got to respect the passion and the intensity that people support their clubs with.

“It’s not something that is normal around the world and you can really only understand when you’ve played in a different league or if Scottish fans go abroad and see how other people do it.

“This isn’t normal - people are so invested - and you’ve got to respect that. You’ve got to understand it and learn to live with it.”

And it’s the ferocious nature of this rivalry on his own doorstep which Johnston finds so completely irresistible.

He went on: “It’s great when you’re winning, I’ll tell you that! And that’s another massive reason why you want to play for a club like this. It’s such a massive draw to know that when you go out there every single match is meaningful.

“It doesn’t matter what the match is. There’s going to be 60,000 people at Celtic Park and millions watching around the world, cheering you on and pulling for you.

“If it’s the opening round of a cup and you’re playing against a Championship team or if you’re playing in the Champions League, you can feel the passion in the support.

“That means the world to a player because it feels like what you are doing matters. You always want your work to feel like it matters, no matter what industry you are in or what you do. You want to feel like you’re doing something that’s meaningful and lasting.

“When you play for a football club like Celtic, every single time you are out there, you know it matters. And it’s not only when you are on the pitch. You could be doing anything like walking around Glasgow or wherever you are, you feel like you’re representing the club and doing something meaningful.

“You can change a little kid’s day at the bottom of the hill if you sign an autograph or have a photo taken with them. That’s something we probably take for granted a little bit but I know I won’t be here forever - whether I make it here until the end of my career or not. But even after that, I won’t live here.

“So it’s about understanding that this fish bowl is not forever. Just enjoy the pros and the cons of it because it’s amazing.

“As much as football talent, that gives you staying power at a club like Celtic. At a club like this you need to have the personality to embrace it because otherwise it can overwhelm you.

“It can wear you down and exhaust you, even when you are at home. So you really need to fully embrace it. You need to understand, ‘What are my escapes and how am I going to embrace it when I’m out there in the public eye?’.

“You need to realise it’s not going to last forever but at the same time, it’s pretty cool. You’re walking out there and some 80-year-old nan is coming up to you and giving it to you about how you played at the weekend - it’s weird!

“But at the same time it’s like, ‘Wow! She is actually really invested in how I do at the weekend!’. It’s kind of cool in that aspect. As long as you fully grasp that and you know what the fans want.

“I always felt the fans want to feel like they can cheer for someone. They are cheering for a team that represents them. And what our fanbase is all about - it’s blue collar, it’s hard working people who work unbelievably hard to be able to afford the tickets to support their club week in week out. And they want to see that on the pitch.

“So when you leave it all out there, which is something I always pride myself in doing, I feel they can always respect that. I feel that’s one of the reasons why the Celtic fans have taken to me so well and I try to reciprocate that whenever I can.”

And now Johnston is closing in on the ultimate reciprocation - another domestic treble.

Victory this weekend at Hampden against St Johnstone will book Celtic’s place in the Scottish Cup Final. And just a point at Tannadice the following weekend will ensure that they head into that showpiece, 90 minutes away from another clean sweep.

He said: “That’s why you do the hard work all season. You want to make this last month and a half as enjoyable as possible.

“The only way you can do that is by having won that first trophy in December and then being in contention for the other two.

“If you do the hard work early, it gets to this point and you can potentially enjoy the riches from it.

“So it is an exciting time. The sun even came out for a while, although it’s gone again! But when that weather starts to turn, you realise you are in the home stretch for trophies.

“That’s part of the Celtic DNA. You come here to win trophies and we’re now at that stage where you get to earn your money."