RANGERS are dead. There’s no such thing as the Old Firm. There’s a pretty wide bandwidth to tune into if you want to hear these refrains ring out around football grounds, pubs, playgrounds and workplaces all across the country.
Normally, they’re spouted with a kind of sleekit glee which anticipates a cross response and rehearsed riposte about the machinations of limited companies and unbroken sporting lineages. The reference here, of course, is Celtic supporters’ indulging in healthy doses of schadenfreude at the expense of their arch-rivals Rangers’ liquidation in 2012 after financial mismanagement caused the club to go bust. But are Rangers really dead? Is there no such thing as the Old Firm?
When the Ibrox club did eventually make it back to the top flight under Mark Warburton in 2016, the main problem lying in wait was a Celtic side which was about to smash all kinds of historical records under former Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers.
Hiring Rodgers’ former Anfield captain Steven Gerrard was a gamble by Ibrox club’s board, but ultimately that paid off when the England legend eventually wrested the title from quadruple-treble winners Celtic during the Covid-afflicted 2020/21 season. That cathartic achievement sparked scenes of unabated celebration from Rangers fans, who presumably believed the resurrection of their club from the ashes was complete.
A run to the Europa League final the following season after Giovanni van Bronckhorst had replaced Gerrard in the first half of the campaign appeared to confirm that Rangers were, indeed, back. But failure to retain their title as supporters returned to grounds en masse the following season and relative unknown Ange Postecoglou presiding over Celtic’s swift return to the top of the pile with a double in his first campaign ultimately cost Van Bronckhorst his job in the first part of the 2022/23 season. His replacement, Michael Beale, would suffer an almost identical fate the following year when Postecoglou’s side forged ahead en route to another treble.
Like his predecessors Beale and Van Bronckhorst, current manager Philippe Clement raised hopes once more among the Ibrox faithful that a new dawn was emerging when he got off to a flying start in the 2023/24 season, forging ahead of the Scottish treble-winners who now had Rodgers back at the helm. When the Northern Irishman lost his first domestic cup match as Celtic manager to relinquish the League Cup, paving the way for Clement to go on to lift the silverware in December last year, expectations were once again piqued down Govan way.
But the Belgian’s failure to capitalise on that early success as Rodgers swept to a league and cup double, an achievement propelled by going undefeated in his five derby encounters with Clement’s side, now provides a worrying portent of where Rangers realistically operate.
While Gerrard’s title success, Van Bronckhorst’s Scottish Cup win and Europa League heroics, and Clement’s League Cup victory represent flashes of the club hitting the heights on all fronts in recent years, the reality is far from the promise those glints of success may suggest.
Since Warburton returned Rangers to the Premiership back in 2016, Celtic’s domestic success has been staggering: the five trebles and two doubles secured during that spell represents a 79-per-cent success rate in domestic competition over eight years. To put that into context, that is just nine percentage points shy of Vladimir Putin’s vote share in the recent Russian general election. Despite what some conspiracy-hungry Bears might suggest, that was achieved without the benefit of an entirely rigged system working in their favour, too.
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For Rangers, the title they just threw away to Celtic could leave them in a more bleak wilderness than the one facing Tory MPs over the next five years. At the most basic level, the Parkhead club enjoy a 20-per-cent greater gate revenue potential over their rivals year on year due to their superior stadium capacity. Celtic’s player-trading model over the last decade or so has successfully bolstered the coffers, while reaching the Champions League group stage on a semi-consistent basis has even outshone the financial benefits of Rangers’ European exploits in the continent’s second-tier competition. The Champions League bounty coming to Celtic this season, however, eclipses all before, with greater prize money and eight group-stage matches instead of six guaranteeing an avalanche of funds on top of an already healthy pile at chairman Peter Lawwell's feet.
Talk of using some of that bounty to expand the capacity of Celtic Park should send shudders down the spines of those counting the coffers at Ibrox. With Champions League qualification not guaranteed to the Scottish league winners from the coming season onwards, even producing another haymaker like 2021 will be no guarantee of Rangers reaping the full financial rewards of such an achievement. The bread and butter of domestic glories, cheered on by full home supports, is the lifeblood of both clubs, the only guarantee of revenue. If Celtic increase their advantage on that front, while Rangers’ own humble stadium developments continue to falter in almost darkly comic terms, the sense of Celtic pulling away from their rivals will only grow.
Going into the 2024/25 season, then, the mood music around the two great clubs could hardly be more opposed. As Celtic bask in the North Carolina sun, serving up an entertaining 4-3 victory over an Erling Haaland-led Manchester City to their stateside fanbase, Rangers’ pre-season woes continued apace in Birmingham on Wednesday night when Clement’s disjointed side fell to a 2-1 defeat to their League One opponents at St Andrew’s.
OK, so it’s just pre-season. It would almost be folly to encourage anyone to watch a friendly match let alone read too much into its result. But even the fact that vice-captain Connor Goldson was pulled from the starting line-up before kick-off after Rangers received a concrete offer for the veteran defender from Cypriot outfit Aris Limassol while Celtic’s prized asset Matt O’Riley continued to burnish his eight-figure price-tag as he pulled the strings against Pep Guardiola’s side demonstrates the complete contrast between the two clubs at present.
A gleeful Rodgers interrupted a Spanish-language interview with winger Luis Palma after his side’s victory shouting “la Estrella, la Estrella” down the microphone, while Clement was left with a now familiarly funereal look on the touchline as his side appeared to lack any cohesion ahead of their Premiership opener against third force Hearts next weekend. There is only one star in the firmament at present, it seems.
In the intervening period, Clement will be fielding questions over whether club captain James Tavernier will be joining Goldson through the Ibrox exit door and whether he can replace those vastly experienced players (and Tavernier’s significant goals tally) before hostilities resume in August.
Rodgers, meanwhile, could have the windfall from the sale of super-Estrella O’Riley to help bolster his options.
Are Rangers’ hopes dead in the water? Is there really such thing as an Old Firm anymore? It’s less a question about liquidation and going bust in 2012 as it is about sheer dominance in a sporting sense now.
Rangers supporters, like Aberdeen and Dundee United fans of the 1980s, can dream of the odd silverware success or European adventure, but they are very much in Celtic’s wake on and off the field. Can Rangers win the title this season? Of course, it’s possible. But make no mistake, Celtic are the clear New Firm favourites in Scottish football now.
