One of the aftereffects of Sunday is that the Ibrox club no longer has any claim whatsoever to being the most successful club in football. We already knew that claim was absurd, even if you accepted their lie—which, of course, none of us did. But now, there’s no disputing it: we’re in front here at home.
This has enormous implications.
So much of their club’s culture and ethos was tied up in that spurious claim. An entire merchandising machine depended on it. All of that has come to a crashing, shuddering halt. It will all need to be radically transformed.
We joked about this on the podcast when I asked if those slogans will still be painted on the walls at Ibrox by the time we roll into town. Will our chairman bring his own tin of paint to emulsion over them? The general consensus is that they can’t afford to leave that nonsense up—it would be humiliating. Imagine how many of us would burst out laughing every time we walked past it.
It’s not just about how we’d react, though. It’s about what it means for them. Everyone inside that building now knows those slogans are lies. It’s one thing to tell themselves it’s not a lie. It’s one thing for them to convince themselves they’re still Rangers. But even accounting for that, there’s nowhere to hide. Those words are now an embarrassment—a reminder of our dominance.
To me, this is the ultimate act of revenge. It’s better than 10 in a row would have been. This, more than anything else, represents the real price they’ve had to pay: to lose what they valued the most, to lose what they clung to the tightest, to lose what they needed to justify their very existence. And now that we’ve taken it, a question arises—one for people inside Celtic to answer.
What do we do with this status now that we undisputedly have it?
There’s a school of thought that says we should do nothing. That we shouldn’t make a big deal out of being Scotland’s most successful club and one of the most successful in world football. After all, that’s a position we’ve always held. I understand where that argument comes from. Some will say that if we start making that claim, it means we’ve somehow endorsed the lie.
I think that’s rubbish.
There was no point in promoting that claim before now. The rest of Scottish football would have dismissed it as childish and ridiculous. You have to deal with the environment you live in, and claiming it before now would have invited ridicule. While I personally don’t care what others think, there seemed little point banging on that drum when so many in Scottish football wouldn’t have supported it.
There’s a time and a place for everything. Sometimes, you have to be tactical; other times, you have to be strategic.
It’s been clear for a couple of years that we were going to overtake their lie at some point. Thanks to Ange’s success and then Brendan winning a double last season, it was obvious this would be the campaign where we finally did it.
Now there’s no disputing our status. No one can critique it or claim it’s an empty boast. It’s a fact, written in stone, recorded in history, and accepted by everyone. It’s time for our club to stand on that.
There’s no justification for doing anything less. I want to walk into the Celtic shop and buy merchandise celebrating it. I want to see it proudly displayed on the frontage of Celtic Park.
We’ve earned this. We’ve earned the right to do this.
We’re not making some grandiose boast about being the most successful club in the world, nor are we taking it to the absurd lengths they did. But the acknowledged, incontrovertible fact that we are the most successful club in Scotland is not some pointless title. It is not a worthless bauble.
It’s not just about bragging rights; it’s vindication. It’s recognition of years of hard work building this club. It honours the efforts of everyone—fans, staff, coaches, players, managers, directors—who played a role in this journey. We’ve all done our bit to get here, and we deserve that achievement to be properly acknowledged.
I couldn’t care less how many people in the media or elsewhere brand this as worthless or irrelevant. They weren’t saying that over the last decade. They weren’t saying it in the 90s. It didn’t suddenly become irrelevant just because Ibrox no longer lays claim to it.
It’s ours now. It belongs to us. And we damn well need to have a plan for how we properly commemorate it and acknowledge it.
Last night we put up our third podcast, Joyful & Triumphant. Please share it on social media friends.
Absolutely shout it from the rooftops.
Celtic are the best and most successful club in Scotland and it looks as if we will dominant for years to come.
My hope now is that the 12 yr old huns spend money they ain’t got trying to keep up and go bust again.
Please ohh please lord, let this be the case
Why shouldn’t we crow about it ? We’ve absolutely debunked their laughable WMSC claim and now after years of their relentless tripe about this, they’ve naewhere tae hide. We’re Scotlands most successful team, won fairly and although it has been a huge struggle in previous decades and yes, we have had a superior bank balance, we never resorted tae dubious, unfair, advantage gaining tactics, unlike the ibrox institution. Although its somethin else, when ye can say tae yer rivals now ‘we’re the world’s most successful club’. We, as Celtic supporters, know its rubbish and ah like tae think none of us would use that seriously. Tho ah’ve already said it tae a few so far, just for reaction sake, who have used this ibrox WMSC club shit at me before and it’s brilliant. They dont agree with ye, nae chance of that and yet they cannae deny it either because they know how it makes them look. Totally fukt. We’ll love this as long as it lasts.
We are not the world’s must successful club that’s Real Madrid.
We are the most successful club in Scotland and hopefully this will continue.
We don’t need to advertise the fact but treat it with dignity.
Rest assured Terry – They never treated their trophies lead with one shread of ‘dignity’ when they were ahead in ma four decades on this planet until they died in shame…
I’ve let the supporters of the new club very much know that since their sordid birth twelve years ago…
That ‘deal’ continues now that’s its 119 v 3 to Celtic over Sevco !
I am in total agreement we should renovate a section of the stands that are reserved for future away tickets allocations (for the peepul predominantly) and every seat should have a logo of the most successful team in Scotland/World on it, possibly even name it “The 2nd most successful team section” or do you think I’m going to far
The seats would be wreked
The seats would be wrecked
This worlds most successful club thing is a pile of pish. Real Madrid have won15 European titles, and were voted the club of the century. Los Blancos in my opinion are the worlds most successful club. They are also the biggest club in the world as well. People talk about Sir Alex, and Pep being up there with the greatest managers ever, and rightly so, but I also think Carlo Ancelotti must be up there, he has won a record 5 European titles as a manager, and I think he should be definitely up there as well. We are the biggest and most successful club in Scotland, and one of the worlds iconic clubs, but Real Madrid are in a different galaxy.
Oh spare us this infantile nonsense.
The lies that have been uttered for many years, from the supporters/inhabitants of Ibrokes about being “The world’s most successful club,”have been as far fetched as believing in Santa Claus. Although, to be fair, Fr Christmas is certainly a more plausible and agreeable lie.
Lies like theirs, can only continue with a fair degree of gullibility or major assistance in continuously proffering it…( which of course we have had with their fanbase and our “unbiased smsm!”)
Like others have mentioned we accept the title of Scotland’s most successful club and why shouldn’t we honour it, with the pride and dignity we’ve shown for all our achievements!
Create a display on The Celtic Way and we can all walk past and acknowledge the blood, sweat and tears that has got us to this present position. We can all do this with a great deal of love, respect and pride, achieved from our humble origins in 1888 through to now ! HH CFC
I think before we get too carried away we should wait until we have created a bit of a significant trophy winning gap. So at the end of the season we should then hose it right into them and right up them.
Merry Christmas, fk the huns.
The problem is we earned the title a couple of years ago. If we only celebrate now it suggests we believe their nonsense about surviving liquidation.
I’ve always reminded them about it since 2012 Pete…
There again it’s easy for me as I’m not likely to get slashed for it in an easier going mixed area –
Good point though – They’d Jump on it…
It’s an eternal shame that the club utterly shat it in saying it all in 2012 !
For me we ignore it. What’s important (as always) is the next game. I don’t want to rub anyone’s nose in anything – that way leads to arrogance and ultimate destruction. We stay humble, enjoy each victory as it comes and always respect our opponents. Let others tell us how well we are performing.