The thorny topic of a guard of honour between Celtic and Rangers always rears its head when the Scottish Premiership title is wrapped up nice and early and before the final derby of the league season.
And sure enough, the celebrations had barely died down among Ange Postecoglou’s players and the small band of travelling legions at Tynecastle last Sunday when some’s attention turned to whether the Rangers players would afford the Hoops stars that show of respect at Ibrox on Saturday.
Record Sport columnist and former Parkhead striker Chris Sutton posed the question on social media and in defence of the Englishman’s critics in the blue half of Glasgow, he was very vocal about it when Steven Gerrard’s side won the league before going to Parkhead a couple of years ago.
And the fact that Celtic didn’t give Gerrard’s men a guard of honour prior to a 1-1 draw at Parkhead could be a factor in Rangers not doing it this Saturday. And Celtic’s reasoning for not doing it in 2021 was because Rangers didn’t do it for Brendan Rodgers and his men the time before that. And so on and so on…
John Kennedy was interim charge two years ago and explained: "I've seen several people chatting about it. It was the same two years ago when we were champions. Being honest, I don't think such a fuss was made about it. I don't see it as a big issue.
"For us, collectively, we've spoken about it and we won't do it. It's not about lacking class or anything like that because we're a club who always show class and do what's right. Ultimately this group of players went in as champions and didn't get the respect at that time, if you want to call it that. They're the same players who are being asked to stand there, so we've decided collectively, as a group, to park that and focus fully on the game."
Sutton had said that Rangers deserved to be “shown respect” and that it was “another bad decision in a season full of them” during a catastrophic failed bid for 10-in-a-row.
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