SIMPLY THE BEST?
League championship No.55 is the most important in Ibrox history – here’s why ....
IT will be simply the best, better than all the rest. For so long, the pursuit and prospect of 55 has been a dream, now it is a reality for Rangers.
After 10 years of waiting and seven months of competition, Rangers are potentially just three weeks away from the Premiership title. Steven Gerrard and his players stand on the brink of Ibrox immortality.
The class of season 2020/21 are not the most accomplished side to have won a title and there may well be higher calibre ones to come if Gerrard can build on the success of this campaign. Their achievement is unique, though, and it is that factor which places them above the legends in whose esteemed footsteps they follow.
The Premiership will be won in
FORMER Celtic striker Frank McGarvey has urged the club’s hierarchy to make Steve Clarke their next appointment. The Scotland manager is gearing up for the European Championships, the men’s first major tournament from since 1998, but McGarvey believes he has the necessary credentials to get Celtic out of the hole “they keep digging”.
While at Kilmarnock, Clarke was open about the pressures of being away from his family who are based south of the border while the sectarian issues that raised their head during his return to Scotland after a career based in England were repellent.
Whether he would be attracted to the weight that would come with the Celtic job is a question only he could answer but McGarvey would like to see him considered for the role, especially after reports Lennon is set to leave Parkhead today.
“I love Neil Lennon and I wanted him to get the job,” said McGarvey. “I’m sure there has been a lot of things going on this season behind the scenes that we don’t know about. But if there is going to be a restructure then I would like to see Steve Clarke go in.
“He is the perfect fit for Celtic. Never in my life had I heard Kilmarnock fans laughing and singing until he was in there and taking them up to third. They all had a smile on their face. He had the toughest job in Europe when he took over Scotland and was charged with getting them back to a finals again but he done it.
“People that don’t know him very well talk about him being dour. He has a dry sense of humour but what does it matter anyway if he is putting smiles on the faces of the support of the club he is at? I’ve been a Celtic supporter all my life and I have never sensed just how down the support are just now. They are crying out for something to pick them up and let them get excited again about the possibility of a new start and a new chapter.
“There’s no way he would want to walk away from Scotland before the European Championships, but he could be allowed to do that while knowing his next step is Celtic.”
Celtic have signed Liam Shaw from Sheffield Wednesday on a pre-contract agreement as they look to begin the preparations for next season. But McGarvey has warned that ultimately the final call in terms of recruitment has to be from the manager.
“I always remember being told that when Jock Stein got the Celtic job in 1965 that his big thing was that he had final say in who came in and who went out. That’s the way it should always be. It’s fine to have a recruitment system and a scouting network and get up to speed with the way the modern game works but if you are a manager then you need to be the one that gets to rubber stamp every final call on who plays for you.”
Celtic fans could have forgiven a season in which the title was not delivered, regardless of the significance that was attached to this particular campaign. But it is the manner in which it has disintegrated that has been
He had the toughest job in Europe when he took over Scotland
the cause of much frustration. Realistically out of the running by the turn of the year, McGarvey has warned that the full force of the fury will be felt when the time comes to dig deep for season ticket renewals.
“Celtic fans are not stupid,” he said. “They will give you their last and they will scream themselves hoarse to back you but they don’t suffer fools gladly. They are peeved at the lack of communication from the board as things have fallen apart. All season they have been digging a hole but it just keeps getting deeper. The fans feel like they are getting the mickey taking out of them and my worry for the club would be when it comes to renewing season books.
“They are not cheap. I think a lot of the support feel as though they have been taken for granted. I think they have been guilty of complacency. Last season Rangers fell apart in January after a strong half of the season. It looks as if Celtic assumed that the same would happen again but you would have to hand it to Rangers; they have been faultless this term.”
While McGarvey was scathing of the way the season has been allowed to unravel he also believes that the players need to shoulder a fair part of the blame for events. And while the effects of Covid on clubs have been spoken of often enough this term, he has warned that if Celtic Park had boasted its full contingent that the team would have been left well aware of the feeling among the support.
“I don’t think the players would have got away with it if fans had been in the ground,” he said. “Odsonne Edouard is one of the most naturally gifted strikers in Europe. He is an outstanding forward but he hasn’t kicked his backside this season. Leigh Griffiths is another quality striker who has talent in abundance but he has not been at it either. These two are guys you would pick as the best front two in the league yet they haven’t managed to sustain any kind of form at all. They are capable of so much more than that.”