CELTIC head to Leipzig today with plenty to ponder.

Will Scott Brown be fit? Is this the night they remember how to defend set-pieces? What is going to be the supporters’ reaction if their team lose in a depressingly similar manner on the European scene? On a positive note, though, how are they going to win this match?

It’s enough to give anyone a headache but at least Brendan Rodgers doesn’t have to worry about taking one of his players out of school, making sure he’s looked after and that the British Consulate is told on a daily basis that he’s being looked after.

And while it’s hard to imagine Roy Aitken as a wean, this is exactly what happened when Celtic drew East Germany’s Sachsenring Zwickau in the European Cup-Winners’ Cup when this club legend was just starting out.

For context, Red Bull Leipzig back in the day would have been behind the Iron Curtain. There was a bit more planning and organising to do back then compared to the pampered stars of today.

Aitken recalled: “I went to East Germany in 1976. I was under 18 and still at school, so they had to get permission for me to travel.

“Jock Stein had a bad accident that year and was in hospital, so it was Sean Fallon who had to go to the consulate every day to sign me in. I didn’t have to go, but Sean did. They put him as a guardian because I was 17.

“The whole thing about being at school and getting time off to travel into Europe with Celtic was interesting, such as getting the official letter. The good thing for me was that I had a headmaster who was a Celtic fan.

“I’d go into school on a Monday morning and, even though we didn’t win anything that year, we were doing quite well. He’d come into the office and offer me a wee cup of tea. He’d have the papers in front of him and would start talking about the game at the weekend. When you think back, it’s strange.”

Just a bit, big man.

“I’ve got great pictures walking out of the school with the chemistry books under the arm. It was just another adventure at that time. It was always an adventure. Everything was coming so quickly.

“I’d just left the boys club the year before, then into the reserve team and then the first team in six months. You just get on with it. It’s sink or swim with the big teams. It’s up to you to take your chance and many young players I played with at that age can’t push on.

“Guys like George McClusky and Tommy Burns came through with me and went on to have great careers, but others didn’t at that time. That’s the challenge. Can you do it season in, season out? That’s the challenge for Brendan’s team this year. Can you do it again?”

The Bear, as he will forever be known as, is Celtic though and through. Aitken was the supporter, player, captain and now ambassador/supporter.

He played 667 times, scoring 55 goals, won 12 trophies and left the supporters with countless memories.

The soon-to-be 60-year-old, now a well-deserved Scottish football Hall of Fame inductee, loved nothing more than to see his club do well and in a week which sees Celtic play Red Bull Leipzig on Thursday before taking on in-from Hearts in the Betfred League Cup semi-final on Sunday, the man also called Shirley – who would be so brave? – is delighted to see some mojo restored.

Aitken said: “I didn’t doubt they’d motor again. I look at the squad, I look at the achievements of the past couple of years, they were playing at a certain level. If they had a little dip, criticism comes your way. That’s normal.

“But it’s a tough game in Leipzig. It’s a difficult group. On some occasions, nine points can be enough, but looking at this group, it might need a point or two away, but that’ll be tough.

“The target for Brendan is to win the league this season and then next season. I don’t think he’ll be thinking about 10-in-a-row. The fans sing about it at games and it would be unbelievable.

“Who knows? 11, 12, 13 in a row?

"But at the moment all Brendan will be thinking about is winning the eighth. That’s what he’ll be talking to the players about. And then taking it season by season. Last season’s Treble is gone and it’s a new challenge this year.

“There’s been a little bit of stick getting handed out. A lot of it unfairly but that’s understandable as it’s the nature of the game. But it’s still early in the season. They’ve scored 10 goals in the past two games.

“Suddenly everyone has gone quiet again. Maybe they jumped the gun with that one and Celtic still are red hot favourites to win this league. Hearts, Hibs and Rangers are doing great. Aberdeen are always in there. It’s a bit of competition.”

There is competition but nothing compared to the era when Aitken was at his height of his powers.

He said: “Other people will argue, but I think in the 1980s was as strong as Scottish football has ever been in the sense you had Jim McLean and Alex Ferguson at Dundee United and Aberdeen, and they were terrific teams.

“Look at the players they had. Teams strewn with top international players.

“Alex MacDonald and Sandy Jardine’s Hearts team of the mid-1980s came along. Rangers were in there competing, so were ourselves at Celtic. It was a great period for Scottish football. It might have been difficult to hang on to those players nowadays because it was a more level playing field in the 1980s.”

Back to the present day, and even this all-conquering Celtic side are being criticised. The former captain gets that.

Aitken said: “You set your own standards and they did set theirs so high. Invincibles one year, a second treble the second year. People are going into this season thinking if they can do it again and, if there’s a little dip, everyone is on his case.

“It’s part of football, but on a lot of occasions it’s unfair and Brendan made a great comment when he said judge them in May, at the end of the season.

“Jock Stein would say the same thing. As did Billy McNeill. You are not judged at this stage of a season. It’s judged when the trophies are handed out and they have proven themselves season in, season out.”

And, if any Celtic player proved himself season after season, it was this one.