For This Weekend Only, Celtic Fans Don’t Want Our Title Rivals To Drop Points.

As we go into today’s game, there’s a dilemma already haunting a lot of us; do we want our rivals to drop points tomorrow? To me there’s an easy answer. Of course, we do not want them to drop points.

This must be one of the few times I’ve written that sentence.

It is made easier to write because it’s St Mirren, not the club from Ibrox, who are our title contenders as the moment, and although that four point gap is a little close for comfort I want to see them rub more pain into Ibrox wounds this weekend and extend over lead over that hapless mob to a straight ten. Ten points clear of them.

In October. Something for their managerial candidates to think, and fret, about.

Like Lampard, who has ruled himself out.

Ha! The press thinks we’re going to presume that because he’s not made the Final Shortlist that he has been gonged off the stage!

But we’re not daft, and don’t be surprised when Lampard’s camp leaks it that in fact he heard what was on offer, made his demands, knew they couldn’t and wouldn’t be satisfied and that he is the one who did walking away.

The trouble with that job at the moment is that anyone who was seriously considering it would have to know what it involves. There’s no cash to spend. The squad is a disinterested shower.

There is no re-sale value to be had there, they are top heavy with attackers who are injured so frequently that they always make me think of Mr Glass in Unbreakable.

Their defence needs to be torn apart and rebuilt, and that’s not going to be cheap or easy.

So, I would pity the guy if he was taking over any other club but them.

Instead, I will wait for his appointment, dissect his record and start the steady task of turning him into the next Banter Years figure of fun. I suspect that it will not be hard to do.

I still think it will be Muscat; the temptation to hire “one of their own” will prove difficult for these Peepul to resist, and this idea that he’s an Ange clone will give them an itch to scratch, that and the presumption that he will know of a few bargain signings over in Asia. There’s a cold logic to it which I don’t think their directors will be able to resist.

To put it in simple terms, I think they’re done for if they fall ten points behind us on Sunday.

I think you can rule them out of even putting up a token fight.

So yes, as risky as it is to hope that the team right behind us gets three points on Sunday, I want to see St Mirren stomp them, and if that comes back to haunt us, if the Saints catch us and overtake us and storm to the SPFL title, then that will be because we did something right as much as them doing something right.

So yeah, I’ll chance it and I think we should all feel the same way.

Three points today, and then a St Mirren win tomorrow. That will do us as we head into these damnable irritating internationals again. They always seem to come at the worst possible time.