IRRELEVANT
Four titles Celtic won in Rangers’ absence count for nothing, insists King
DAVE KING has branded the four league titles accumulated by Celtic during Rangers’ absence from the top tier of Scottish football as ‘irrelevant’.
Dismissing Celtic’s prospects of securing ten-in-a-row, the Rangers chairman insists the Premiership champions are only entitled to say they have won two in succession and ‘won’t even get close’ to beating the record figure of nine that is currently shared between the Glasgow institutions.
Celtic’s latest title victory under Brendan Rodgers was the Parkhead club’s sixth consecutive league success since Rangers prevailed under Walter Smith in 2011.
However, King (above) claims the count was suspended in the wake of the financial meltdown that saw Rangers forced to start again in the bottom tier of the game a year later.
‘Celtic have six league titles but the concept of nine-in-a-row is a competition between Rangers and Celtic,’ said King. ‘If Rangers went into the English Premier League and Celtic stayed behind in Scotland and won 20 league titles, there would be no point in them saying to Rangers fans: “We’ve won 20 in a row”. It’s irrelevant if Rangers are not there.
‘It’s a challenge among ourselves. The fact that Rangers were removed from that league for four years suspended the nine-in-a-row pursuit. They’ve got the titles but they haven’t got six-in-a-row in competition with Rangers. That only recommenced last season.’
The South Africa-based businessman was in combative form as he made a rare public appearance at Ibrox to announce the renegotiation of the club’s punitive retail deal with Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct firm.
Having first claimed Celtic had not taken full advantage of the chance to create a gulf between the clubs, he claims a Rangers title win is now only a matter of time.
He added: ‘So as far as Rangers are concerned, Celtic haven’t got six-in-a-row. They’ve got two. And they’ll never get to ten. They won’t even get close.
‘They need to win another eight to get to ten. Do I think there’s any chance of them getting another eight? I don’t think there’s any chance of them doing that before us winning another league title.’