GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - SEPTEMBER 13: Rangers manager Derek McInnes is seen during the Rangers v Celtic - Premier Sports Cup match at Ibrox Stadium on September 13, 2026 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Every Ibrox manager who beats a Celtic manager gets the same treatment in the media. He walks on water for a brief time. He is hailed as a conqueror for a brief time. He gets to believe that he has got the measure of the fixture for a brief time.
It never lasts, and Derek McInnes’ day in the sun is not going to last either.
Because what exactly did he do at the weekend that any of us had not done already?
He spotted Celtic’s weaknesses and knew how to exploit them. That’s football management 101. It’s not a special skill set. Any football coach worth his salt could have and would have done the same.
The fact that we’ve had so many shots against us this season, even from clubs lower down the SPFL, means that we’ve pretty much been figured out by everybody by this point. If we continue to play our bizarre and highly dangerous midfield system, we’re going to get stripped over and over and over again.
But should we actually do some tactical analysis, should we actually figure stuff out, McInnes will get revealed for what he is too.
A pretender. A chancer. He was barely hanging on before the weekend’s game, and it is always amazing to me how one match can transform the media’s interpretation of an Ibrox manager and where he stands.
McInnes had some good results prior to the game against us. But they hadn’t been good performances, and I know because I’ve watched them. If Celtic have not fixed their problems, neither have they.
Every vulnerability in their team is still there. Every contradiction between the way they played against us and the way they play against other teams, week to week, is still present and accounted for. Every problem that is easily identifiable in the way they go about their business still exists. They still have to be remedied, and McInnes isn’t the guy to do it.
His tactical plan beat our tactical plan at the weekend, and for that everyone at Celtic should hang their heads in shame. It is not brilliance on the part of Derek McInnes. It is our own failures which played into his hands.
He didn’t suddenly become an elite manager on Sunday. He simply exploited weaknesses that every other coach in this league has seen and tried to exploit. Only McInnes had players who could do the damage. That is all.
He is not special. He’s not possessed of brilliant insight. He’s simply able to take advantage of our mistakes, and that does not make him the swaggering conqueror the press would have you believe.
It is not even three weeks since this guy’s team went out of Europe altogether. Out of Europe altogether. So the press trying to give him the laurel wreath and the triumph makes me laugh. It’s about the only thing this week that will.
How quickly they forget their own narrative. How quickly they forget that it’s not that long ago that they were laying the stones on this guy’s cairn. They probably would rather not be reminded of that fact. They would rather not be reminded that some of them said pretty much what we were saying about McInnes when he got the job.
The difference is that some of us are still saying it about McInnes, and we are right. Because that’s not a conqueror. That’s a joker, and his team aren’t world-beaters.
I’m not interested in who wins the League Cup, but I don’t think they will. I’m more interested in who wins the title and the Scottish Cup, since that’s what we’re playing for now. And, as usual, the media has made its characteristic error of believing that because an Ibrox boss can get a single result against Celtic, he’s set up. He’s ready to go. That’s all he needed to do and all he needed to be.
But you need to be able to do much more than that. You need to be able to win consistently against all the other sides. You need to be able to maintain that form. And the fact is, I don’t think he can or will.
All of us know that our current situation is untenable. Whatever is going on inside Celtic, whoever is running the tactical and organisational side of the club is asleep at the wheel. And that can’t go on.
But the fact remains that O’Neill has the highest win percentage of any manager in Celtic’s history. A Martin O’Neill team is a team that consistently puts points on the board. If we can get to 90, which is increasingly likely if we just find a way to tighten up at the back, we’re going to take some stopping. And McInnes is not the guy to do it.
Even if they were to win all four Glasgow derbies in the league, I think we could put sufficient distance between ourselves and them to retain the title anyway. And I don’t think we will lose all four derbies in the league.
For one day, that guy gets to wear the crown. For one day, he gets to strut around. But the work has already started at other clubs who are coming up against them soon. The preparations are already being made to pull McInnes down.
We get the first try, and we can extend the lead to eight points. I’m not going to tell you that I’m confident, but those are doubts about us. That’s got nothing to do with him.
He knew how to beat us on Sunday because we are predictable. He knew how to beat us because we are chaotic. He couldn’t have been better prepared for that game had we faxed him the blueprints for the team selection.
It was our failure that handed him the initiative. Not every club in this league will be that stupid, and we will surely not be that stupid again.
Choose The CelticBlog as a ‘Preferred Source’ on Google News for quick access to the news you value.
I think you are letting your heart rule your head here James. Of course McInnes is not an elite manager and never will be, but neither is MON. You can give any stats you like about win rates and trophies won etc but MONs greatest achievement in football is a UEFA cup final appearance… that is not elite football
McInnes won because we are shite I agree, but we have won 14/15 titles because they are shite. You’ve said this every 2nd day yourself for years. Its why we want to sack the board that gave us Rodgers, Ange & MON ..quad trebles, invincibles etc.
Meanwhile while we win all these gongs. We get pumped by LASK, Kairat, Bodo, Midtjylland etc. We get super pumped by Dortmund, PSG, Atletico, Real, Barca. The invincibles got 7 put past them ffs. When Artmedia beat Gordon Strachans team, that was our all time record defeat in europe at the time. That record has now been beaten many times in the last 15 years.
If McInnes had been in charge of Celtic for the entirety of last season we would have won the league at a canter. Yes he has only won one trophy, but name a scottish manager outside Celtic that has won more than 2 in the last 15 years. If you think MON, Rodgers or Ange would have won a barrowload of trophies managing a team outside Glasgow you are kidding yourself on….McInnes may not be great and I agree he may soon come to an untimely end but he is not as incompetent as you wish to believe James…that team on Sunday should have been easy meat for us!
Didn’t Callum Davidson win more trophies in one season than McInnes managed in his whole managerial career? Unless I’m mistaken. McInnes is an average SPL manager, history proves that. But he put effort into Sunday, something our management team didn’t and we paid the price for it. I wouldn’t be surprised if we brought in another first team coach during the international break. Someone who can coach in something other than 4 3 3. We need all the help we can get because clearly, something has to change.
Nobody is saying McInnes is a great manager JS, but you dont have to be great to win this league. Lenny won trebles ffs and got hounded out the door.
Calum Davidson won 2 trophies in one season at St. Johnstone, a fine achievement of course.
To put it in perspective Calum Davidson won 2 trophies in one season, which is 2 more trophies than Brendan won in 3 seasons at Liverpool.
James may well be right and MacInnes may implode or he may win the league cup which would put him on 2 trophies also…he still wouldn’t be a great manager but you dont have to be. Nobody is saying Gerrard is great but he won the league..all you need is the other team to be shite. We have been winning trophies for years for this exact reason.
We need to concentrate on our own shortcomings. MON is 2 defeats away from the knives coming out for himself.
I read this article and filed it under “Whataboutery”. Despite the wage bill we have at our club for players, we are nowhere close to getting value for money in terms of performances. The same applies in the boardroom (although our owners – spoiler alert, that’s not the fans) might think differently with the annual profits delivered.
McInnes should win the vast majority of his games given the financial advantage he has over other teams. This season will come down to a two horse race (reinforced by results this evening) and being up for the fight.
I’m with JS in that I think we need to bring in a top level coach as MON is being let down by the team he has. But I’ll go further and say if we don’t augment the coaching team then we will not win this league.