Earlier on in the week, The Record did one of its truly lamentable pieces.
It was on the day, just before the Ibrox ten-in-a-row campaign got underway, when two Rangers teams – an A and a B team – lined up against each other in a pre-season friendly.
The Record says that the mood over there (and in the media) was so positive that they believed either would be good enough to secure the title and make history.
Celtic were to make a mockery of that arrogance.
The point of the article was that the Ibrox club was at its peak, and the height of its pomp, and with the resources to keep winning leagues into infinity, and yet we rallied and were able to defeat them. It was, I think, supposed to give hope to the Sevco fans.
At the time, few could see Celtic overhauling Rangers, and we did.
Yesterday, when talking to Jarred of the Celts Down Under podcast I pointed out that our signings in that summer were not impressive, on paper … most commentators, carried away with the Ibrox hype, thought we stood no chance.
And this is why the story was given currency; it’s to inform the Sevco fans that even when there seems to be little chance of them stopping us that it’s still possible and they should not give up. They are to be encouraged to believe, because if they stop doing that the party is over.
Over the weekend, I will write more fully about why this particular fantasy of theirs will not help them any more than all those which have come before it.
But The Record missed the moral of the story; that friendly match was sheer egotism and it was that egotism, and the adulation of the press which followed it, which led to the gross underestimation not only of Celtic but of the rest of the league too.
That is a mistake that we will not make.
This is another hope that is forlorn.
Even The Record know it; they concluded that it will be a much harder job to stop our ten than it was for us to stop the one at Ibrox.
This is correct.
It will be harder still when you consider that arrogance and ego are still running amuck at that ground, and with Gerrard in place most of all.
James Forrest is the guest on the latest Celtic Down Under podcast, which you can listen to here.
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