Celtic manager Neil Lennon won last season's delayed Scottish Cup - but he's keen to avoid a repeat of the turmoil that surrounded the country's premier knockout competition.
A penalty shootout win over Hearts delivered the quadruple Treble to Parkhead nine months after the tournament was first put on pause by the Covid-19 pandemic.
11 months on from the grim March shutdown the same competition is in limbo again after being suspended until at least the end of this month.
Managers are divided in their opinions on whether it should be completed with St Mirren's Jim Goodwin in favour of calling off the Cup.
But Lennon reckons it should be finished off this side of the summer - even if there's a possibility of getting fans into grounds at a later date - and hopes the SFA will do everything they can to do so.
He said: "I'm sure they will, but if they can't then there's not a lot I can do about that or the club can do about it.
"We won the cup from last season, this season It's not ideal.
"It's very surreal, very different. If we can avoid that scenario happening again it would be great and we can prepare as best as we can for that competition."
Asked if he would postpone the competition in a similar manner to last season so supporters could return, Lennon replied: "No. If we can play it this season then great, because then you're going to have another backlog of fixtures for the following season.
"Then you're looking at your squad, looking at your fixtures this season, preparing for games that come up and lie ahead.
"Going into next season, with supporters... we can't predict that.
"We were all hoping in the summer, when August came around, we were hoping this time of the season we would have supporters back in stadiums. That has not been the case.
"So it's very difficult to predict if and when supporters will be back in the grounds. And I think it's a huge miss.
"Not just for Celtic, not just for Scottish football, but looking at the games around Europe and the UK - it's soulless at times."
