Celtic v Rangers
Countdown to the Old Firm showdown
Caretaker boss John Kennedy has hit back at former Rangers chairman Dave King’s claim that Celtic were arrogant.
King maintained the Parkhead club believed that winning 10 titles-in-a-row was a foregone conclusion.
He believes that led to them under-investing in their squad, and suffering as a consequence.
Kennedy, however, is adamant the Hoops’ failure to win the Premiership this season wasn’t down to having a bad attitude.
He said: “It’s unfair to say we were arrogant. He obviously doesn’t know what’s going on over here. He deals with his own club.
“We never show any arrogance as a club. We’re humble and try to do the right thing for us as a club.
“We don’t concern ourselves with too many other clubs, or anyone else for that matter. We just focus on how we make ourselves better, how we improve things.
“It doesn’t always go to plan, and that’s what has happened this season. Not everything is perfect.
“But we’ve had great success over recent seasons, and at some point we were going to lose a trophy as you can’t go on forever.
“Unfortunately for us, it’s come this season and it’s been the league.
“It’s now about how quickly we address that, and how quickly we get back on track and not just accept that someone else might be trying to take charge.
“It’s about us saying :‘We’ve been the most-successful team in recent seasons and we want to get back to being that again’.
“Complacency in the summer certainly wasn’t a factor.”
Kennedy, who takes charge of Celtic in an Old Firm game for the first time this afternoon, doesn’t attempt to claim there was a lack of spending on players for this campaign.
He went on: “We did invest and the club supported the team.
“It’s been a difficult year for everyone, one like no other. It’s thrown up many challenges we’ve
never faced before – not just on the football pitch, but behind the scenes, too. Even getting to see players we want to bring in, it has been very challenging.
“It has been the same for everyone, so we’ve got to learn from that.
“We’ve got to accept where we’re at, but it certainly wasn’t down to complacency. That’s not an excuse or reason for it.
“The players are good. Trust me, I see them working every day
“It’s purely down to us not performing well enough in too many games. We have to accept and deal with that, but it’s about what we do from now on.
“That’s what we’ve said in the last couple of weeks and that will be the case today as well.”
Kennedy is targeting a victory in the Scottish Cup as a way of rescuing something from a frustrating season.
He added: “That’s the goal now for everyone. The only bit of silverware left is the Scottish Cup.
“We want to win all the games, that includes the league games. We are not just dismissing them.
“It’s part of the process of getting that belief in the players and them performing they way they can.
“We want to do that in the league to give us that belief, confidence and trust again and take that into the cup games.
“If we get to the Final and manage to win the trophy, it would be a terrific achievement by everyone.
“We’ve got to use it to our advantage. We’ve not managed to be as successful as previous seasons, but there’s still an opportunity there to go and win a bit of silverware.
“That will be extra motivation for the squad.”
Beating Rangers today would certainly make everyone at Celtic feel a little better about themselves.
Kennedy knows from experience that easy Old Firm games don’t crop up for either side.
He said: “I played at Ibrox when we had a big lead in March, 2004 and it was a tough game. Regardless of the points difference, it’s always a tough game.
“Rangers have had a good season and won the league, but for us it’s about showing what we’re actually capable of as we haven’t done it enough this season.
“It’s about accepting that and going forward and showing what we’re truly capable of.”