WITH a 16 point cushion over Rangers at the top of the William Hill Premiership table and only nine league games to be played in the 2024/25 season, it is by no means imperative that Celtic return to winning ways against their city rivals this weekend.
If the Parkhead club lose to the Ibrox outfit in the East End of Glasgow for the first time in four-and-a-half years on Sunday they will still lift their fourth consecutive Scottish title at some stage in the coming weeks.
The 3-0 defeat which Brendan Rodgers’ team slumped to against Philippe Clement’s side in Govan back at the start of January, though, means this is by no means a dead rubber Old Firm derby.
Celtic fans were, even though the visitors remained 11 ahead at the end of 90 one-sided minutes, furious at how their men performed that afternoon and will be far from pleased if there is not a distinct improvement and a far more agreeable outcome this time around.
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Rodgers is certainly keen to erase the memory of that off day and give the home support a sweet triumph over opponents whose caretaker manager is Barry Ferguson – a Rangers icon who has long been something of a hate figure for them - to savour
Speaking after his charges’ win over Hibernian in the Scottish Gas Scottish Cup quarter-final last weekend, the Northern Irishman said, “Listen, we were well beat. Rangers stole our game that day. That's normally how we play and how we do, but they took it from us and deserved the win.
“But we will be ready for the demands of that game. I said before, I'd never had the team really like that in any of those games. So the demands that are needed to play in that game, we will be ready for them next week like we were in the first game.”
There is, then, little chance of the latest encounter between Scottish football’s behemoths being the sort of subdued affair which sometimes occurs when the title race has been decided or is a foregone conclusion.
Will there be an extra edge to proceedings due to the impending takeover of Rangers by a consortium comprising the San Francisco 49ers and the billionaire American health insurance tycoon Andrew Cavenagh?
Talks between the group and current shareholders Dave King, John Bennett and Barry Scott are at an advanced stage and a deal is expected to be concluded in the next couple of months.
So why will a result, a draw or possibly even a triumph, matter to Rangers at Parkhead on Sunday if so many of the playing and non-playing personnel will no longer be in situ next term?
A victory will show that the 55-time Scottish champions are, even in their current state, capable of competing for major honours with adversaries who have very much been the dominant force in the country for the past decade and more.
A win would further dent the aura of invincibility which Celtic and their manager Rodgers – who has won 16, drawn two and lost just two of the Glasgow derby matches he has been involved in during his two spells – have domestically.
Rangers followers are feeling pretty darned excited about their new American owners and are, even though nothing has been finalised, hopeful that far better times lie ahead on both the financial and football fronts.
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If their current side can, just three days after a mentally and physically exhausting Europa League last 16 encounter against Fenerbahce of Turkiye, prevail it will fuel that growing feelgood factor further and make them believe the 2025/26 campaign will be different.
Nobody at Celtic will be overly concerned about what is happening on the side of the River Clyde. They have been responsibly run for a very long time now and are not about to rip up their tried and tested business model because of the fresh challenge which they will face.
They once again came out on top of the Fair Game Index - which looks at the sustainability, governance, equality and ethical standards and fan and community engagement of the clubs in the top seven divisions in England and the top four in Scotland – last year. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Still, they will be keen to assert their superiority in this match, give their fans an afternoon to cheer, take a step closer to the Premiership crown and show the away supporters who will be in attendance inside their ground for the first time in two long years that they have no intention of being deposed and will take some shifting.
That did not prove to be the case. They lost the opening Old Firm game 1-0 at home, Beale was gone by October and Callum McGregor and his team mates went on to complete a Premiership and Scottish Cup double. There have been numerous false dawns like that in recent years.
But if Rangers come out on top this weekend it will, with a globally-renowned NFL franchise and a super-rich benefactor poised to run and bankroll them respectively in the not-too-distant future, give Bears grounds for justifiable optimism even with the strict spending rules which their new custodians will need to adhere to.
