ROBBIE IN FANS PLEA
BY SCOTT BURNS
ROBBIE NEILSON has warned football without fans just becomes a business.
The Dundee United head coach is delighted the Premiership is set to kick off again in August.
The likelihood is the early games will need to be played behind closed doors with a deal announced with Sky to offer supporters virtual season tickets to watch remotely in the short term.
Neilson is pleased there is now hope going forward but for him football won’t really be back until supporters return to the stadiums.
The United boss said: “When you don’t have fans at the game it just affects everything really. For me, football is about the fans. If you don’t have the fans then it purely becomes a business.”
Clubs need to put rigorous testing in place and will have to meet the highest safety standards for the Premiership to start in August as planned.
The clubs are already looking at testing options and the other headache is getting training facilities. United’s St Andrews’ base remains closed and they might have to start their pre-season elsewhere as they gear up for the big kick-off.
Neilson reckons those early games will be a challenge if they are played in empty stadiums. It was something he never really experienced in his career and it will be alien to all his players.
“I don’t remember playing in many off the top of my head,” he said. “There were a few low-key friendlies but I don’t think I have played in closed-door games.
“It is difficult because there are no atmospheres in these games. It is a bit false and I am not a fan of it but if needs must and some games have to be played like that then so be it.”
ANDY HALLIDAY has insisted Rangers can smash Celtic’s 10-in-a-row dream – if they can add another three signings of the quality of Ianis Hagi.
The departing Ibrox star is in no doubt Steven Gerrard is the man to take the Light Blues forward and believes for the first half of this season they were more than a match for Neil Lennon’s Hoops.
The lifelong Rangers fan knows the importance of his team winning this title to stop their Glasgow rivals from setting a new record for consecutive top-flight titles.
Halliday believes it has been a major coup signing Hagi on a permanent basis and knows if Gerrard can add a bit more talent and Rangers can show a bit more consistency then winning the league is more than possible.
The 28-year-old midfielder said: “Hagi is a great signing and if we get another two or three Hagis to go with the squad we have already got then I am hoping and confident that the club can do well. “I do think we have a strong squad just now and it is those two, three or four bits of quality that can help us on our way. “In terms of the staff who are there I’m in no doubt they are the people to take the club forward. “The squad last season was really strong and maybe it was a bit too big but that is understandable because we were going into Europe and we were trying to be competitive in a lot of competitions.
“It is a huge season for Rangers but it is one I am confident they can be competitive and hopefully will win the league.”
Celtic were 13 points clear when this season was declared but Halliday insists nobody within Ibrox was giving up the fight – until the SPFL pulled the plug on the season. He said:
“There were still two Old Firms games to go.
“I am not going to sit here and lie, Celtic were the favourites to win the title but Rangers have won two titles on the last game of the season.
“Rangers have been seven points clear and lost a title and so it was a never-say-never scenario.
“As players we always felt we could claw it back and were going to take it game by game.
“Then going into two Old Firm games, both must-wins, but the decision was taken out of our hands.
“It’s all guns blazing for Rangers going into next year now.”
Halliday also thinks Gers can take