Alan Stubbs says Ally McCoist was wrong to say Rangers have closed the gap on Celtic - and predicted the Hoops will soon leave them in the dust.
Ange Postecoglou is chasing a domestic clean sweep with the Hoops currently nine points in front of their fierce rivals in their bid for two-in-a-row and the sides due to meet in the league at Parkhead in the second Scottish Premiership fixture after the International break. They will also clash in the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden where Celtic came out on top in the Viaplay Cup final. Ibrox strike legend McCoist said the gap is closing, though, under Michael Beale.
But Stubbs disagrees and he told Grosvenor Sport : “The score in the League Cup Final was 2-1 but the game wasn’t as tight as that. Celtic were pretty much in control of that game. I see Coisty was saying that the gap isn’t that big but I’m not so sure. There’s a nine-point in the League and it’s been that way for a while. The teams meet on April 8 and if, as I expect, Celtic win that game it becomes 12.
“Then before you know it the gap will become 14, 15 or 16. So I think that will be a more realistic representation of where the two teams are. Results have improved at Rangers under Michael Beale but they scraped a lot of these wins or were not convincing. So in terms of closing the gap on Celtic, I don’t think they have.”
Stubbs also insists Kyogo won’t be sold for a penny less than £20 MILLION but is adamant Celtic are in a much better financial position than five years ago and won’t need to cash in on the Japanese superstar.
The 28-year-old was signed for just £4.5 million from Vissel Kobe and has been a huge success at Parkhead. That’s why former Hoops defender Stubbs slapped a massive price tag on his head, just more than Celtic got for Moussa Dembele when he was sold to Lyon and £5m less than the club record sale of Kieran Tierney to Arsenal.
But Stubbs said: “The big thing for Celtic is the financial position they find themselves in. The playing field they are on now is different and improved to five years ago. Then they might have had to sell a player but now they don’t have to because the balance sheet is very healthy.
“And if they are tested over Kyogo then they are going to make sure that he will go for top dollar and let’s be honest he won’t go for anything less than £20million. Kyogo has been exciting since the day he arrived.
"I was interested to hear Ange’s comments that the team are not giving him the best service. He’s always making intelligent runs and he must be so difficult for defenders to deal with because his timing is so good.
"I think Ange is alluding to the fact that players are not reading his runs all the time and if they do he’s only going to score more goals. I can understand why fans are making comparisons with Henrik Larsson and if you’re getting mentioned in the same breath as him then you know he’s doing something very special.”
Stubbs paid Postecoglou a huge compliment by rating the job he has done as better than Brendan Rodgers and is convinced he will resist the lure of England. The Spurs job could soon be vacant, although Record Sport revealed Thomas Frank is in line for that.
On Postecoglou v Rodgers, Stubbs said: “Ange’s team has more of an edge to it in terms of how they press and they are more aggressive. The job he’s doing is more impressive than Brendan because he’s doing it with players that not a lot of people had heard about.
“Brendan brought in players that were tried and tested in English football, signed the better players in Scotland and found some good players from abroad and had better players anyway. But Ange has unearthed gems and their value is going through the roof so the Celtic board must be absolutely cock-a-hoop about the job that he’s doing.
“The way I hear him talking he seems very content. He seems very at ease and there is no big rush to move onto the next project. He seems a very astute and very intelligent man and the players look like they enjoy playing for him.
“He has been linked with a few jobs in England. It looks like Tottenham is the biggest one on the go right now and I have no doubt that Ange will feel he can do that job but it’s whether the owners feel the same way. I have a feeling he wants to achieve more at Celtic. Not just this season. He’s got one trophy in the bag, he’s effectively won the league and could win the treble.
“But I think he wants another crack at the Champions League. I’m sure he’ll desperately want to improve on what they did this season. It’s the one area he will feel there are big improvements to be made.”
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