The Ibrox boss knows the power of the Celtic fans. Why don’t our own leaders?

Sometimes the best compliment you receive is not meant as a compliment at all. Today the Ibrox manager paid Celtic supporters a very large compliment. I am quite certain he never intended it that way.

There has been a lot of debate about whether the Green Brigade will get back inside Celtic Park before the end of the season. There is also the question of whether they will attend away games. Much of that debate centres on how important they could be to Celtic’s title challenge.

We all know the truth of it.

When Celtic Park is rocking, when the stadium fills with colour and noise, the team gains an advantage. The atmosphere lifts the players. It unsettles opponents. The big matches ahead will demand exactly that kind of environment.

The next one at home is against Motherwell, who people currently talk about as the best team in the league. It would be a perfect moment to have the Green Brigade back inside the stadium.

However, that would require something that currently appears unlikely. It would require an outbreak of common sense at the top of the club.

So far, the directors at Celtic Park seem reluctant to allow that to happen. For reasons known only to themselves they continue to resist the idea of bringing back the most vocal section of the support. That decision is difficult to understand because there is little doubt it would improve our chances in the games that remain.

Further evidence arrived today.

Danny Rohl offered a backhanded compliment to the Celtic support when he said it would be the duty of the Ibrox players and supporters to drown out the Celtic fans as early as possible. In other words, he understands the danger our fans pose to his team.

They clearly worry about the prospect of seven and a half thousand Celtic supporters making themselves heard inside that stadium. We have seen that situation many times before. The noise from those supporters can completely change the mood of a match even when Celtic fans are heavily outnumbered.

There is a reason they reduced the away allocations in the first place.

The Ibrox club and their supporters struggled to cope with seven thousand Celtic fans celebrating inside their ground. They hated seeing visiting supporters singing and dancing in front of them on their own turf.

The same opportunity existed for them when they visited Celtic Park; that was the ultimate stupidity of their argument. Yet that fact rarely mattered to them. The complaints continued for years until the situation eventually changed. The breaking point came after the famous afternoon when Celtic scored five goals there. On that day the only singing inside the stadium came from the Celtic end.

Rohl clearly understands something that Celtic’s own board appears to have forgotten.

If Celtic supporters dominate the atmosphere and the opposition players become nervous, the match can quickly swing in our favour. When home fans start turning on their own players the effect can be devastating. Every misplaced pass is greeted with groans. Every mistake invites sarcastic applause from the visiting support.

At that point the pressure grows.

If Celtic supporters are singing loudly while frustration builds in the stands around them, the weight of that atmosphere begins to press down on the home team and not ours. Performances suffer. Confidence drops. Simple mistakes start to appear.

This is basic psychology.

Yet Celtic’s board couldn’t bring themselves to get there for this game, and they continue to exclude the most organised and passionate section of the support from Celtic Park. As things stand, they will not be present as a collective for the crucial game at the weekend although I have little doubt many of them will have tickets.

But this situation cannot continue.

Even the Ibrox manager has acknowledged the influence Celtic supporters can have on a match. If he believes our fans are a weapon that must be blunted early, why does Celtic’s own board refuse to recognise the same reality?

Rohl’s comments reveal genuine concern. It is also a perfectly reasonable concern. If seven thousand Celtic supporters find their voice inside that stadium while the home crowd grows restless, the psychological advantage will swing strongly in our favour. Unless the home side completely controls the match, they will struggle to silence that noise.

As long as Celtic remain competitive in the game, those supporters will keep singing. They will keep urging the players forward. They will keep demanding that the team press for victory. That is exactly why many Ibrox supporters argued for years that Celtic should never receive such a large allocation of tickets in the first place.

You can learn a lot about a club’s confidence from concerns like these.

Truly confident teams do not worry about away supporters making noise inside their stadium. When a manager speaks openly about the need to drown out visiting fans, he is revealing a vulnerability. Rohl has acknowledged that vulnerability.

He is absolutely right to be concerned.

Once you accept that reality, another question becomes unavoidable. Why is Celtic’s board still depriving the team of the loudest and most passionate section of its own support?

It has been one of the strangest decisions in a season full of strange decisions. If the Green Brigade are not back inside Celtic Park for the run-in, it may yet prove to be one of the most damaging mistakes of all.

Even the manager across the city can see the importance of it. Why can’t we?