After yesterday, one thing should be abundantly clear: Celtic should not be losing this title race under any circumstances. The Ibrox side is in freefall, and their situation is only going to get worse. There is no sign of improvement, and as this realisation dawns across Scottish football, something else should be coming sharply into focus — the staggering vulnerability of the Ibrox club, which every other team in the league should now look to exploit.
This means Motherwell fans should have no concerns about the League Cup semi-final. Any team facing them, including St Mirren next weekend and Aberdeen a week on Wednesday, should now approach those games with confidence rather than fear.
These sides should no longer view those matches with apprehension but as opportunities to pile on the misery and drive the Ibrox club further into chaos.
Aberdeen, in particular, should see this as a massive chance. If they take three points in their upcoming clash, they could go nine points clear of the Ibrox club. No team in the league should believe that they are invincible anymore. The evidence is right in front of us; they are entirely beatable, and everyone knows it.
The Ibrox club finds itself in the worst possible position. They have European commitments on top of domestic fixtures, but their squad is not built to handle the pressures of competing on so many fronts. The manager is now under intense pressure, the board is at war with the fans, and rumours of dressing room unrest are rife. The club is facing enormous problems on multiple fronts, and no team with an opportunity to take advantage of this should hesitate to do so.
Celtic, of course, have their role to play in this. Although we don’t face them until the New Year, we need to keep winning, keep racking up points and goals, and maintain our momentum. But Aberdeen can strike a much more immediate blow. If they manage to secure three points against the Ibrox club, the consequences could be seismic.
Depending on the results of their upcoming fixtures — including their Europa League match on Thursday, the league game against St Mirren, and then Aberdeen — it’s not unthinkable that Philip Clement could find himself on the brink of dismissal before the League Cup semi-final. The club may decide that the best way to salvage their chances of making the final is to sack him before the game. Stranger things have happened at Ibrox, and if the results don’t go their way in the next few fixtures, such a move might not even be seen as radical by their board.
Although I think it’s unlikely they’ll lose the next three matches, they should have enough to beat St Mirren and probably scrape past their European opponents. Pittodrie, however, is a different story. A nine-point gap between them and both Celtic and Aberdeen would be a disaster, and it’s difficult to see how Clement could survive even in the medium term if that happens.
One thing is certain: if Clement goes into the League Cup semi-final with a nine-point gap in the league and loses that match, his time at the club is over. There’s no question about it. That would provoke a fan revolt of epic proportions, and the board would have no choice but to sack him in short order.
We’ve spoken on this blog before about how, when a manager is in crisis, every game feels like it could be the one that tips them over the edge. For Clement, Thursday’s match might not be the final nail in the coffin, but next week could definitely be the week where everything comes crashing down.
For teams like Aberdeen and St Mirren, this is the perfect time to strike. They should see the cracks in the Ibrox club and drive the wedge deeper. And as for Celtic, the job is simple: keep winning and watch the pressure on the Ibrox club build to an unbearable level. There’s no need for us to worry about what happens over there as long as we stay focused and keep doing our job.
In the end, it’s not just Celtic who should benefit from the Ibrox club’s crisis. The entire league should be looking to take advantage of their vulnerability.
The Ibrox club is wobbling. It’s time to push them over the edge.
I think they’ll have enough to get past St.Mirren but there again at a toxic Liebrox who knows…
Pittodrie could be pretty gruesome for them though and hopefully will be –
I actually think we ourselves might have to work hard to beat Motherwell away after our Champions League exploits and travel away again to an away game – Strange wee anomaly that so it is…
He’s definitely toasty ghosty if he’s papped outta The League Cup by Motherwell for sure !
The atmosphere at lbrokes will surely have an unsettling effect on their team , the more they lose the quicker the team will buckle as the pressure ramps up and that’s when their nerve will go , any team playing them should know get the first goal and the guarenteed booing from the stands will shatter their already depleted confidence.
They’re not in turmoil, it’s an opportunity ! I read on one of their forums that Danilo is fit and maybe they’ll get Arteta in to replace the man they just gave an extension to. So deluded.