CELTIC VS RANGERS: THE STOPPABLE FORCE MEETS THE MOVABLE OBJECT
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- Aug 28
- 2 min read
Lots of voices, followers of other, inferior clubs, who couldn’t wait to gleefully shout and scream at Celtic and our fans on Tuesday night, suddenly fell silent last night.
Club Brugge gave us all something of a very timely pick-me-up, with their 6-0 demolition of The Ibrox Tribute Act.
However, as we sit just a couple of days out from the first Glasgow Derby of this season, the thoughts of most Celtic fans looking ahead to Sunday seem to be a variant of: “We’re sh*te, but are they even worse?”
Celtic vs Rangers: A Clash Defined by Aspirations of Mediocrity
Back in the early 2000s, before the inevitable Ibrox financial implosion, Celtic vs Rangers (Requiescat in Pace) was a genuine clash of European giants. Both teams were regularly competing well in Europe. Celtic reached a European final in 2003, with Rangers (Requiescat in Pace) also getting there five years later.
Today, the contest really does seem to be a question of “which team is worse?” Because we know both are utter mince at the moment.
European aspirations seem to be completely out the window. For the current incarnation of Rangers, maintaining a delusion of parity, both financial and footballing with Celtic, is all that matters.
For Celtic, our board seem to have just accepted that all is well, so long as we are “just a wee bit better than them.”
That’s embarrassing. Brugge, a genuine European level club, showed us last night the true gap that should exist between Celtic and Rangers, but doesn’t.
Brugge are a smaller club than Celtic. But, they are a far more efficiently run club. They replace players that they sell, and they do so with quality additions.
They look back on a good European campaign and think “Let’s go one better next year!”
Celtic have backslid on every level since our high point where we came within seconds of beating Bayern Munich on their own turf. Where is the aspiration? Where is the building upon success? Where is the ambition?
We’ve reached a point now where Brugge (a club we competed with and could, with a bit of luck, have beaten, in The Champions League last season) can go out and absolutely destroy our closest domestic challengers.
And yet, I am genuinely worried about this game at the weekend. I’m hopeful, but by no means certain that Celtic will win at Snake Mountain on Sunday.
The fact that there is even a shred of concern about visiting a Rangers side in utter disarray, with a manager who is about as popular at Ibrox as Pope Leo, is an utter indictment on the current state of Celtic.
Beating Rangers should be the bare minimum acceptable standard for Celtic, not the metric by which we judge a successful season.
Winning on Sunday isn’t good enough, but it is essential.
