Celtic cannot afford to let rivals steal cheap points

SAYS JIM CRAIG

WHEN we won the first of the historic run of nine titles in 1966, absolutely no-one was thinking about anything else. We were always being told around that time that Celtic hadn’t won a trophy since the 1957 League Cup. As it transpired, the 1965 Scottish Cup win against Dunfermline proved to be the catalyst for the most celebrated period in the club’s history. In terms of leagues, though, you were going way back to 1954 — the year the team won the Double — for the last time Celtic were able to say they were the best team in Scotland. That number of years without a title is a long, long time for a club like Celtic. Initially, then, we were just delighted to have won just one. There were too many other good teams around to even consider dominating in the way we did. Around the mid-60s, Hibs and Hearts were both capable sides, Kilmarnock were strong and the Dundee clubs were coming on to a game, too. But Rangers were naturally the main team we looked towards when wondering where the strongest challenge for the title was likely to come from. They were also in a European final in 1967 and then won the Cup Winners’ Cup five years later. So we were up against a very strong Ibrox side. Just look at the league tables from those nine seasons to see how tough we had it: There was nothing that you might say was a runaway title apart from one year — 1969, when we won by 12 points. Nine-in-a-row is a hell of a number. One little slip in any of those seasons would have seen the run come to an end. So the consistency of the players was remarkable. That’s the difference with this current run. Because of the demise of Rangers and the fact no-one in Scottish football has any real money to buy any players, Celtic have had things pretty easy and, certainly a few years back, were usually well ahead by the turn of the year. There’s also no doubt that the Rangers team who did Nine-in-arow in the 80s and 90s were up against a far weaker Celtic team than the Rangers team we faced. There were 30 domestic trophies up for grabs in the 1990s. Celtic got five of them — an extremely poor return for a club like Celtic. At the same time, Rangers were extremely strong. They had good managers in Graeme Souness and Walter Smith and they were able to buy good players as well. The number of managers Celtic went through in that period said it all; Liam Brady, Lou Macari, Tommy Burns (below). When you are going through managers at such a rate, that’s always a sign that things are not going well. It was only when Wim Jansen arrived in 1997 that they were finally able to stop Rangers’ run. This season will be fascinating. Perhaps in previous campaigns when Celtic drew or lost the odd game, it would not be seen as a disaster. But every single point between August and May will be potentially season-defining. There will be a real tension to every match. The other question will always be if teams other than Rangers can put in a sustained challenge. The fact is that the others don’t have the financial resources. I’d fully expect Rangers to be stronger. They have brought in a number of players with good pedigree and in all likelihood they will be better than the ones who are going out. I thought they were a little bit naïve at times last season. I felt Steven Gerrard made some strange managerial decisions. But he’ll have learned from those. Alfredo Morelos, no matter how good a player he is, causes havoc. In my view, you are better not having someone like that in your team. The bad he does outweighs the good. Gerrard and Morelos will surely have learned a lot from that. He also seems to have brought in some good names with the sole intention of stopping Celtic in their tracks. Come September 1 — the date of the first derby at Ibrox — we’ll have a fair idea just how good they are and what chance they have of knocking Celtic off their pedestal. No matter what side of the divide you are on, it’s going to be compulsive viewing.