The Ibrox club is nothing like Man Utd. Last night showed the difference clearly.

Earlier in the week, Keith Jackson wrote one of his hilariously bad articles, and it was bad in every way that makes Jackson’s articles so special. The writing was appalling, with one example standing out above all others: he described Diallo’s contribution in an Ibrox shirt—when Man Utd loaned him to their club—as being “as robust and as reliable as a wet fart.” Perhaps you didn’t know wet farts were known for their reliability; neither did I. When you read Jackson, you learn something new every day.

I don’t even know what kind of phrase that is to use in a journalistic article, even if it made grammatical sense, which of course it does not. And this is why I critique this guy over and over again.

He may not be the worst journalist in the country—that almost certainly falls to the guy who writes for the Sunday Mail, whose name I’m not even going to mention—but he is certainly one of the worst writers. Perhaps one of the worst writers I’ve ever had the misfortune of reading on a regular basis.

The general tone of that article was just as bad as the writing, and its central point was so utterly preposterous that it defies description. Jackson made a comparison between the fortunes of Manchester United and the Ibrox club, suggesting they are somehow mirrored. Except one of those clubs is the richest in the world, and the other is a Rangers tribute act that is financially on its knees.

Manchester United, even in their alleged period of turmoil, have won a European trophy and accumulated ever more silverware. The Ibrox club has won some silverware too, but let’s not kid ourselves. They pride themselves on being a “top team,” yet they’ve won a handful of honours, which shows them up for what they really are: strugglers still trying to bang on the door of relevance.

The respective positions of both clubs were exposed mercilessly last night at Old Trafford. On the surface, the match seemed close, decided late in the game by a single goal after the Ibrox club managed to claw their way back into it. But had United fielded a proper centre forward instead of a converted winger playing as a striker—and here’s a warning to Celtic—they would have been out of sight. United created enough chances to win a hatful of matches.

Manchester United’s schizophrenic nature was summed up by two players: one a poster boy for their failures, and the other a poster boy for what the club could still be if every player had his quality and focus.

On one hand, you have Harry Maguire, as bad a player as you could hope to see for the money spent on him. He is the summation of an entire chaotic era at Manchester United: a symbol of waste, incompetence, and a strange kind of insanity. The same insanity that saw them briefly bring back an aged Cristiano Ronaldo.

On the other hand, you have Bruno Fernandes, a sublime, otherworldly talent. He is the only player in that side I would regard as world-class, an elite-level performer who would grace any team, anywhere in the world, and who would have slotted into any Manchester United side of any era. Fernandes’ brilliance only serves to highlight the mediocrity of those around him.

The current position of the Ibrox club was ruthlessly exposed by the poverty of their bench, which they had to utilise several times during the game, bringing on youth players and reserves. For all that they did reasonably well, the comments from Almiron before the game about how this might be the worst Manchester United side in history don’t seem quite as dramatic—or as absurd—as they first sounded.

See, United, like Celtic, are awash in money. They have the resources to rebuild if that’s what they need to do, and it clearly is. The weaknesses at that club are in leadership and vision, not structural capability. Manchester United, for many years the richest club on Earth, has no structural weaknesses.

And this is where Jackson’s article veered into unreality, and even stone-cold stupidity. As I said on the podcast last night, when they won the COVID title across the city, they believed they were set up to go on and win title after title. They thought they had overtaken us and all they had to do was continue on that path to guarantee success for years to come.

Well, those morons never thought beyond their own little echo chamber. None of them ever considered structure. None of them thought about power and where the real power of a football club flows from. Any organisation, no matter how strong, can suffer because of bad leadership. In some ways, our leadership at Celtic is very good. They’ve built a powerhouse with money, know-how, and talent. But assembling power and being able to use it properly are two different things. Our problem that year, and a recurring problem over the last two decades, is that we don’t always deploy that power to maximum effectiveness.

That is a limitation of leadership, not capability. In strict terms, our capabilities vastly outstrip theirs. But it requires leadership with the will and know-how to use that power appropriately and strategically.

I’m comforted by the knowledge that Brendan Rodgers is in the building. If you’ve seen the piece I put up on the transfer market profile of our signings, you’ll know why. The Jota signing—now that we know it’s been signed off on by Rodgers—should give us more confidence. Once again, it fits the profile Rodgers has established of not aiming low, but aiming for the very best Celtic can buy.

We’re spending a little more to get higher-profile players. Instead of signing three players at a couple of million each, Rodgers is laser-focused on spending that money on the right individual, someone who can progress the club in a much greater way and at a much quicker speed. That is the proper strategic application of power.

Just as the Ibrox club mistook our club’s strength for the strength of our leadership, they also misunderstood their own strength and structural capabilities. Those capabilities were nowhere near what they believed them to be.

Nobody in that support—either then or now—has taken into consideration the enormous damage COVID wrought on their club, or the damage already done before COVID by Dave King’s “front-loaded transfer spending” policy.

This was intended to give Gerrard more resources than he probably should have had early in his tenure to catch Celtic.

Well, congratulations, King, because it worked for one season. But they’ve been counting the cost of that decision ever since, and they’ll continue counting it for years to come. Their structure is inherently weak. They are not a strong club. They do not occupy a strong position. They are not standing on a solid foundation.

Their folly can be summed up in much the same way Manchester United’s can. If Maguire is the poster boy for United’s failures and Fernandes the poster boy for what United might one day become, the same applies at Ibrox.

The poster boy for everything that has gone wrong there is their goal-scorer, Cyriel Dessers. And the poster boy for everything their club might be? Take your pick of one of the kids who came onto the pitch. One of those players represents the way they’ve done things; the other represents the way they’ll have to.

Dessers remains their most potent goal-scoring player. He’s not the best striker you’ll ever see, nor the most talented forward the game has ever known. He’s a battering ram, and there’s a place for that in the right system. But there’s a reason their club cannot wait to move him on. They believe they can get £5 million for him. They won’t. They’ll hold out as long as they can, but eventually, they’ll have to cut the price to get him off the wage bill and bring in some money.

They signed Dessers at 29 years old, with no resale value, no hope of development, and no chance of making a profit. All the top clubs in England and elsewhere scouted him extensively and passed. When they bought him, they were looking for a short-term fix and now have to pay the long-term price.

They should have been investing properly in youth development years ago. Instead, they’ve opted for quick-fix signings. When you look at the colossal amount of money their club has wasted, that is one of the only areas where they are comparable to United; in terms of sheer profligacy. The difference is that United can afford to write it off. The Ibrox club cannot.

The kids are the poster boys for their future because when you look at their squad and realise they’ll likely try to get four players off the books this month, including Dessers, those kids will be doing a lot of heavy lifting. The gap right now is 13 points, but if their already weak squad is further depleted, they’ll be dropping points regularly again long before the season ends. That gap will only grow.

This is important for next season, too, because this isn’t a one-season affliction. Their club faces austerity well into the future. And this is where Jackson’s article gets it completely wrong. Comparing their plight to Manchester United’s is absurd. United are victims of bad leadership and a lack of a proper plan. But they have the resources to fix things as soon as someone comes up with a plan. They can literally throw money at the problem until it goes away.

Money won’t be the determining factor for Ibrox. It can’t be, because they don’t have any. Whatever plan they come up with will involve doing more with less. And the problem—beyond the obvious—is simple and deadly: they don’t just have structural weaknesses; they also have weak leadership.

That creates a hole that is even tougher to dig themselves out of. I don’t know if they can. It looks bad for them.

Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images

The Trinity Tims put out a special on the events surrounding the game … and the aftermath. Let’s say I wasn’t terribly happy … 

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