Ange Postecoglou’s non-negotiable philosophy on the game is that his Celtic team must never play as if they’re afraid of their own shadow.
The only problem is, so far as Europe is concerned, the shadow more often than not comes out on top and darkness eventually descends. Celtic’s naivety at Champions League level exceeds their ambition and that’s why there’ll be no European football after Christmas this season. The only consolation for some Celtic fans is that Rangers are worse than them in this arena.
If Postecoglou’s side can occasionally give a masterclass in productive mayhem then their historic rivals are a masterclass in mediocrity. But the bottom line for the pair of them is Europe has amounted to nothing more than this or that. So now it’s back to us and them at domestic level. The common ground that is agreeable for the obsessed and the infatuated in the hermetically sealed bubble. Starting with Celtic’s visit to Livingston this afternoon.If Rangers are so bad, how embarrassing would it be not to win the league title at their expense?
I have the greatest admiration for Livi boss David Martindale ’s story of rehabilitation and redemption. From jailbird to free as a bird, and the occasional scourge of the Old Firm into the bargain. He still looks to me like a punter who has evaded the stewards and invaded the trackside coaching area to start directing his favourite team.
But what a job Martindale does when he gets there. The manager has been in one more prison, Barlinnie, Glenochil, Castle Huntly and Noranside, than his striker, Joel Nouble, has scored goals this season. He’s got a rubbish pitch and next to no fan base to speak of, but he does have a HNC in mechatronics and a tool belt at the ready when a crossbar sags in the middle on match day due to vandalism the night before.
And his coaching qualifications will be completed when he gets his UEFA Pro License next year. In the meantime, the sides he comes up against can sometimes be on the intimidated side of apprehensive when it comes to facing Martindale’s gang in football strips. Jersey on first and then the incontinence pants. It was that way for Rangers last weekend when they were fortunate to get away with a draw against Livi at Ibrox. And Celtic have no grounds for being dismissive of Martindale’s team today.
The manager could once more influence the progress of the title race on a budget Rishi Sunak would say constituted a national crisis. Martindale is an illusionist. He makes you contradict the evidence of your own eyes with his team of odds and sods. Livi are more than they should be on a regular basis.
Celtic are not yet all they can be to Postecoglou’s way of thinking. He wants them in the Champions League on an annual, as opposed to irregular, basis. In order to do that Ange’s team will need to win their domestic league for starters. And that means overpowering mechatronman along the way to maintaining the lead they currently have over Rangers. It’ll take their minds off what might be coming their way in Madrid on Wednesday night.
Whatever is Giovanni van Bronckhorst on about when he says he wants Rangers to exit the Champions League with their heads held high on Tuesday night? They forfeited that privilege when they shipped seven goals to Liverpool in a record defeat at Ibrox.
Going into their final Group A game against Ajax trying to avoid becoming the worst competitors in Champions League history is about attempting to lift your chin off your chest – nothing more dignified than that. Van Bronckhorst’s need is to avoid further ignominy because, at the moment, there’s nothing more positive than that on the horizon.
Team selection has become unfathomable. Team performance is largely unacceptable.
And the manager’s position is somewhere between debatable and untenable. If you’re charitable, you could say Napoli head coach Luciano Spalleti showed clemency by resting half a team’s worth of key players against Rangers in Italy.
If you’re less inclined towards self-delusion you would argue he was contemptuous of the opposition and sent out any old 11 because he knew that would be more than good enough. Napoli didn’t go for the jugular after scoring twice early on in the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium. They simply got bored toying with Rangers and settled for three goals in the end.
Van Bronckhorst’s post-match assessment of the game bore no relation to the reality of the situation. Why talk about Juventus and Barcelona failing to make it to the Champions League this season?
What does that have to do with Rangers being on -18 goals and no points while trying to avoid bettering, if that’s the right word, Dinamo Zagreb’s so far record-breaking tally of -19 and no points? So far as this Champions League is concerned, Rangers have become the Ford Fiesta of European competition. Out of place in the modern world and now they’ve run out of road in Group A.
Van Bronckhorst started off by saying it was “too much to ask” for Rangers to compete at this level after they were hammered by Ajax in Amsterdam. He left Naples saying people had to be “realistic” about the level of teams Rangers were playing against.
I wouldn’t put the grandchildren’s inheritance on a home win over the Dutch under those negative circumstances. The only correct decision taken at Ibrox of late has been to commission a statue to honour the memory of the late Walter Smith.
‘Sir’ Walter was a professor of pragmatism. There would have been no seven-goal humiliations on his European watch. And attempting to avoid being the worst of the rest would not have registered on his mind as any kind of achievement. Too many players have been found out over the course of the five group stage matches which have shone a light on Rangers’ inadequacy.
We’re still talking about Alfredo Morelos’s fitness levels and we’re about to enter the month of November Ryan Kent? A passenger in the Ford Fiesta. Allan McGregor is 40 years old. Steven Davis is two years younger than him. Scott Arfield is 34. James Tavernier is seriously wanting at the game’s equivalent of high altitude.
Others, like Malik Tillman, are unlikely to last beyond the lifetime of their current loan deals at Ibrox. Scott Wright lasted half a game in Amsterdam and was hooked. Ten games later, he’s given a start in Naples and is subbed at half-time.
No wonder the fans are perplexed to the point of exasperation. There’s a substantial rebuild on the way at Ibrox and it remains to be seen whether the reconstruction work will be carried out by van Bronckhorst or someone else.
Right now, the only thing set in stone will be Walter’s statue.
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