It’s Starting To Look Like Celtic’s Will Field A B Team For The Game That Is Shattering Ibrox.

The story of Australia gets crazier with every minute that passes, and developments on the international stage have today changed things again.

The Celtic fans, many of whom are wholly opposed to the Gutter Ball, have made their views known to the club in a measured, responsible fashion.

At Ibrox, it is the spark that has triggered a full-scale civil war which has been brewing for many, many months.

The most amazing thing about this match is how low-key it looks as if it’s going to be, and I’ll be honest; the longer this goes on and the more this match is slowly, but surely, stripped down to the point where it is simply “just another friendly” the less opposed to it I find myself becoming.

Oh, I’m still not going to watch it, and I will be incensed if the club decides to go down the road of making this a regular feature on the calendar … but as a one-off fixture it is clearly not going to enhance their reputations in the way it once might have.

Part of that is the World Cup, and today’s development is interesting on that front. Japan has now qualified for the competition, and that further reduces the significance of the friendlies because it guarantees that some of our best players won’t be in the team.

In fact, when you look at the players we’re likely to have on international duty – and the possibility exists that there will be friendly games as well even for some of the teams who have not qualified – it looks certain that the games will be played with skeleton squads.

What does that do to the mythical “status” of the game?

The impression grows that this really isn’t something worth getting into a twist about.

That’s why Ibrox’s meltdown is so much fun to watch; their club is pulling itself to bits over something that’s just not that important … glorified kick-about under the hot Australian sun.