Sunday was another Glasgow derby and another victory for Brendan.
He really is making a habit of this.
That’s him unbeaten in 5 now, with 4 wins and an aggregate of 11-3.
As with most of the previous affairs, save the last match at Celtic Park and the first 25 mins of the Hogmanay game at Ibrox, it was a rather one sided affair. Brown bossed the midfield, the back 4 pinged the ball around between them effortlessly and the attacking players ran rings round the opposition defence at will.
The light blues were completely outclassed and it was a wonder they kept it down to 1-0 at half time.
They came out hard and fast in the second but this simply resulted in Celtic breaking away and winning a penalty which was converted soon after.
And that was that.
The foot was taken off the gas much to my personal frustration as I always like to see the advantage pressed home. But I guess that’s just being greedy. The Ibrox side missed some decent chances in the dying embers but you always knew Celtic had another gear in them and they gave a reminder of this when Rogic crashed a late shot off of the base of the post.
In the post match post-mortem, the question continuously was asked ‘How will the gap be bridged?’
The answer to that is two fold.
Major squad investment by Dave King and a complete on / off field collapse by Celtic.
So basically……it won’t be.
Not anytime soon anyway.
Indeed that same night our south-side neighbours held their annual player awards ceremony. The results were as much an indictment on the current Ibrox regime as anything that occurred on the park that day. 38 year old Clint Hill walked away with the ‘John Greig Achievement Award’ (answers on a postcard) and 37 year old Kenny Miller won the coveted ‘Player of the Year’ trophy. Not to mention that Emerson Hyndman won the ‘Young Player of the Year’ medal.
He returns to Bournemouth in a few weeks by the way.
All in all it all bodes pretty poorly for them.
It’s alright though. Clint downed a couple of Jaeger bombs and jumped on a fans back before belting out ‘Follow, Follow.’
You really couldn’t make it up.
Quality wise there is an incredible gap now.
Celtic’s starting line-up is by no means perfect but is on a different level. Yes it will require adjustment and even upgrading for another European assualt but this could be done via the addition of 2-3 quality signings. It’s difficult to say who or where exactly but you would probably look at right back, centre back and in the middle.
A striker wouldn’t go amiss but would at the moment be less of a priority.
You can’t go out and spend millions on the basis that someone might get injured.
For our rivals it’s less about adjustment and more about augmentation.
Indeed overhaul would be more accurate.
Even the denizens of Ibrox seem perplexed by the abilities, or lack of, of the likes of Andy Halliday, Joe Garner, Rob Kiernan and Martyn ‘Say it to my face’ Waghorn. All look like high class Championship / low level Premiership calibre players which is exactly what they are.
Barry Ferguson was at pains on BBC Sportsound the other night to point out the irony that all three of their award recipients would see their deals expire at the end of the season. Meanwhile the rest still had years on their contracts to go.
A terrifying thought.
Well for Barry it is at least.
He was questioned on whether budgets were brought up during his unsuccessful interview for the number 2 post with Caixinha. He said they hadn’t been. So safe to say Pedro isn’t from the Walter Smith school of cheque book management.
Also an insight into why Wattie won’t be returning to the hotseat of Ibrox anytime soon.
Barry also claimed that in his days as a Rangers player there were no tactics for an Old Firm game. They were apparently just told to ‘go out and win your battles’ ie: throw hammers. He also bemoaned that no one had kicked Scott Brown in the first 5 minutes but wasn’t encouraging fouling apparently.
Based on what Willie Collum thinks passes for a yellow card and not a red they would have been pretty safe to have left their mark had they so desired.
Let;s be honest we all knew Collum was grabbing some of the headlines from Sunday’s game no matter how it played out. In the opening minute he bottled it. Just as well we didn’t need him to actually do what he was paid to.
Meanwhile back at the ranch Celtic will limber up for a crack at the treble on May 27th.
There’s also the small matter of Ibrox on Saturday.
A real chance to rub the home crowd’s nose in it. A nose that will already be thoroughly disjointed should the home side show some dignity and actually give the title winning Celtic team the now customary guard of honour.
No matter how that one plays out a treble would cap a pretty magnificent debut season by Brendan Rodgers.
The man who can’t stop smiling.
The man who can’t stop winning.
Paul Cassidy is a Celtic fan who can’t get the grin off his face. He has been celebrating since Sunday and is all set to start again at the weekend.