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Celtic’s Title Win Paid Another Major Dividend Last Night. There Are More To Come.

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In case no-one has alerted you to it, last night the club from Ibrox lost 2-0 in their Champions League qualifier in Belgium.

It was a disastrous display, characterised by defensive lapses, tactical ineptitude and simple unpreparedness. Three of their new signings were on the bench, having been judged not ready to start.

Two others did start and were awful.

This is a familiar tale, for us.

Because we’ve been in that position before. This is the direct result of doing business late whilst the clock ticks down towards qualifiers.

There is a balancing act to these things and Ibrox was so keen to get Bassey off the books that they forgot the most obvious thing; whoever they signed would need a while to bed in.

The question is being asked; should they have kept Bassey and Aribo until these games were behind them?

They chose not to, and it’s too late now to have regrets about it.

These are questions that we had to answer last season in our own qualifying campaign.

These are not easy decisions to make. They are not good decisions to have to make.

Thankfully, our title win erased any need for us to worry.

Leaving aside the money, the biggest advantage to automatic qualification is that no juggling act like this was necessary at Celtic Park. We didn’t have these kinds of choices in front of us, only a quiet start to the campaign with no midweek fixtures to bother us.

Ibrox’s troubles have only just started.

The worst they do here is the Europa League groups, so if the Belgians finish the job, at least their club avoids two further qualifying games, because they go straight into those groups and don’t have to play the games against either Monaco or PSV … but there’s a hefty financial reward for playing those games which they won’t be getting either.

Morale takes a hit. The budget takes a hit.

They have made a big song and dance about their quality and their great European record … it will take a momentous hit.

Having those qualifiers to play, to gain access to that pot of gold, puts enormous pressure on a team, not that you’d have known it beforehand as all the talk was about how good they are over there and the infamous “European run.”

But that pressure is real, and inside the walls they’d have felt it.

So too is the pressure of all that expectation on the shoulders of their team for what I’ve always argued was a fluke. Their fans started this campaign thinking they could shoot the moon … it was always nonsense. These qualifiers were always likely to be a rude awakeneing.

But not this rude, of course, nor this funny.

None of it touches us at all.

We get to watch. We get to relax.

It’s a very sweet place for our club to be in this campaign.

Very sweet indeed.

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14 comments

  • Roonsa says:

    Tut tut tut. Gloaty McGloatface when there is still another leg to play. Not a fan of talking the talk before the walk has been walked.

    It is promising, for sure. But that’s all it is.

  • Kevan McKeown says:

    Theyre still in it, of course they are. But it’s still a well overdue reality check for their droolin media and deluded factions of their support. All we’ve heard of recently is how ‘Europe’s eyes are on rangers’ and similar utter shit like that. Maybe no the team to be ‘feared’ in Europe they’ve been made out tae be eh ?! Only in Scottish media terms of course.

    • Roonsa says:

      Who cares about the Scottish media, Kev? As is pointed out on here on a daily basis – you’d be as well looking for a more balanced opinion from the most bigoted of bigots on Swallow Swallow’s Bear Shit.

      • Kevan McKeown says:

        Don’t think anybody with half a brain takes their opinions seriously anyway. It’s just good to see them get the reality and hype rammed down their throats. Remember one particular DR ‘reporter’ after they beat Dortmund, his headline actually said ‘are rangers the best team in Europe’ ? ah mean ffs !! Aye, ah bet all the CL clubs were shittin theirself at the thought of playin them. Shows the ridiculous extent they go to and its because no other media tabloid in Scotland ‘challenges’ their crap. Anyway, its what WE dae that matters.

  • scouse bhoy says:

    this tie is far from over but the level of criticism from the cheerleaders is not the done thing in sevconia where there is never any negativity to report. is there something going on behind the scene regarding failure to qualify ?.

  • Tony B says:

    We’re doomed. DOOMED ah tell ye!

  • Johnny Green says:

    Nobody’s gloating just yet……but get it right fkn up them!

  • FSTB says:

    The world would be a dull place if you couldn’t have a wee gloat now and again
    I prefer humour to humility and I must confess to laughing my ertwhistle aff when I saw their result
    HH

  • Johnny Green says:

    I bet USG half time and full time @ 7/2, so I had good reasons for a good smirk.

  • Tony B says:

    Bollocks to humility.

    Gloat gloat gloat at every opportunity.

    And here’s a prediction; the huns will not reach the group stages of the C.L. this year.

    We’re already there.

    Don’t let them ever forget it.

  • John S says:

    A decent result for a new club.

  • SSMPM says:

    Me too and I had a smirk as wide as the Clyde, like I did earlier in the year when I picked up my winnings for Celtic becoming Scottish league Champions.
    I’m glad they got humped, not just beaten but humped. Rack off if you don’t like that. Regardless of the second leg, they got well humped and if I want to take enjoyment from them playing like a bag of cants I will and have. Scum on the run

  • Starman says:

    Get it right Fukin up them lol! Had a grand on the Belgian Buns @2/1..
    Stella will taste aw the sweeter raday BAWAHAHAHAHAHA!!

  • John Copeland says:

    I’m wondering how long it will take this season for the Rangers to beg their directors again for a huge loan to keep the lights on! Last season it was the start of the Winter period.Its strange too that the Record’s roving the Rangers reporter Andy Newport called the VAR penalty a’diabolical decision’ and then admitted he’d only seen the incident once on a monitor! At least I suppose everyone now knows the deal with those Record scoop typists!

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