There feels inevitability around Celtic winning – or at least not losing – the first Old Firm meeting of the season. What will follow after dust settles on a crash, bang, wallop occasion at Celtic Park is more surprising – outbreaks of sense and sensibility on either half of Glasgow’s football divide.
Brendan Rodgers appears to have realised the world outside Scotland shrugs shoulders when Celtic prevail on the domestic scene. The manager has placed Champions League competitiveness, or progress, at the forefront of his aspirations for this campaign. He has directly stated he wants his team to aim for a playoff place from the new format.
This attitude is long overdue: for more than a decade, Celtic have made up the numbers in Europe. “We don’t want to just participate,” says Rodgers. The manager is “excited” by the challenge rather than in awe of it.
Looking beyond parochialism is not only essential to keep Rodgers stimulated but sensible in respect of an uneven financial playing field. Celtic warmed up for the visit of Rangers by tossing aside St Mirren. In their last published accounts, the Paisley side posted a turnover of £5.7m. Celtic have boosted their squad by signing Adam Idah from Norwich for more than £8m and Augsburg’s Arne Engels for £10m.
The loss of Matt O’Riley to Brighton will be keenly felt in the short term, but it is worth remembering Celtic did little in Europe with the midfielder in the team anyway. O’Riley is an example of how Celtic’s much-criticised recruitment policy can prevail – as a £1.6m buy sold for close to £30m – and why Rodgers can afford to get a few of his signings wrong.
Celtic were unconvincing for much of last season, whereas now, with Rodgers and his ideology fully bedded in, they look menacing again. Celtic’s pressing has been especially strong thus far. “We are in a really, really good place as a team,” says Rodgers. “We have had three shots against us in three games, which shows how well the team is working together. But these are different games, emotional. It will be a tough game.”
Philippe Clement has no such transfer market leeway. It represents simple common sense that those in the Rangers boardroom are no longer willing to plug financial black holes, but the impact on the field is stark. As Rangers scraped around for August loanees and tried to offload overpaid underachievers, it feels as if Clement has a water pistol in opposition to Rodgers’s AK-47.
The ghosts of Rangers managers past show an away derby early in the season proves hugely problematic, to the point of non-recovery in the case of Giovanni van Bronckhorst after a 4-0 loss.
There is no danger of Clement losing his job, even if Celtic toy with their fiercest rivals. Rangers’ stance now is that the time has come to stop chopping and changing dugout personalities. There are questions around the Belgian, including by way of tactical inflexibility, but Rangers may reasonably assess there are no better qualified coaches who would gladly take on a role where second-best looks as good as it is going to get.
Clement’s commitment to Rangers is nowhere near as curious as many would believe. This is a huge club in a great city, where success brings adulation. He also has a level of power and control not available at many clubs of similar standing. The manager is empowered because his paymasters are so desperate to see him rebuild the playing side of a club that has been epitomised by wastage.
The fixture will again take place without away supporters, which is a clear but ignored breach of the Scottish Professional Football League’s rule I27. Celtic may well be within their rights to refuse to allocate tickets, apparently through concern Ibrox will not be appropriately updated to house away fans in January, but the issue is difficult to assess properly while nobody at the champions speaks out on the matter.
Celtic’s messaging is carried out via unattributable briefings rather than interviews from, for example, the chief executive. Theirs is such a lame approach from a supposedly big club. On the pitch, though, Rodgers has applied proper focus. Celtic are desperate to beat Rangers while aware the time has come to be judged in far loftier environments.
