Celtic’s strong financial accounts show why Rangers MUST win the league... or face living in their arch-rivals’ shadow

MOTIVATION maybe hasn’t always been what it should at Rangers this term. One look at Celtic’s interim financial figures, though, certainly ought to focus minds on the desperate need to retain their Premiership crown.

Despite the last set of accounts pointing to £11million in the bank, the Ibrox club run at a loss and require support from directors. Selling Nathan Patterson for £12m was a start, but Joe Aribo and Ryan Kent are about to enter the last year of their deals and there is no solid evidence their employers yet know how to establish a successful transfer model.

One look across the city will offer all the tips they need. The sales of Odsonne Edouard and Kristoffer Ajer helped put the club in profit and bankrolled the signing of 17 new players under current manager Ange Postecoglou.

They now have almost £26m in the bank. Maintain their onepoint lead until season’s end and they will have the best part of £40m from the Champions League on top.

Thanks to fine recruitment from Postecoglou and his agent in a lunatic timeframe, they have rebuilt Celtic from a blast-sized crater to a club with strong assets on long contracts and a base to build on. Rangers, meanwhile, need a summer rebuild.

Champions League moolah would help with that, but retaining the Premiership crown is about more.

Upsetting the odds to win the title didn’t just stop 10 In A Row. It stopped Celtic from stretching out over the horizon.

Yet, Rangers didn’t strengthen. And if they blow it between now and May, they are back looking at a prospect they thought ‘55’ had dispelled — returning to their arch-rivals’ shadow for the foreseeable.