Stubbs: Celtic cannot afford to let title slip
Alan Stubbs was part of the Celtic team which stopped Rangers setting a new record of 10 consecutive titles in 1998 – even though he admits that Walter Smith had better players to work with than Wim Jansen.
Now he fears that the current Ibrox side could emulate their achievement by winning the title – and pocket the automatic Champions League £40m windfall which accompanies it – if Celtic don’t get their act together in next month’s transfer window.
The club’s recent accounts posted a record turnover, leaving them with £72m in the bank – and the squad weaker than it had been the year before.
Stubbs now fears that another poor performance by head of recruitment Mark Lawwell (only two of the 13 players signed in 2023 have featured regularly in the first team) could gift-wrap the league flag to their biggest rivals.
“Ange Postecoglou did really well when he came in,” Stubbs insisted. “He went back to Japan and signed Kyogo, Reo Hatate and Daezen Maeda, who all did well without costing much.
“The club was blind-sided by that success and they’ve tried to copy that but, without Ange’s knowledge of that scene, it hasn’t worked out.
“Celtic’s policy of buying low and selling high is great when it works but the last year has shown what happens when it doesn’t.
“Brendan Rodgers has some big calls to make next month. He needs to ship out as much of the dead wood as possible while bringing in at least three or four big personalities who can go straight into the team, although I’m sure he’d prefer half-adozen of them.
“Don’t forget that Celtic will probably be without Kyogo, Hatate, Maeda and Oh in January because they’ll all be at the Asian Cup and they’re already weaker than they were 12 months ago because Jota, Aaron Mooy, Carl Starfelt and Georgios Giakoumakis haven’t been replaced by similar quality.”
A win at Parkhead would see Rangers start the New Year top of the table.
Stubbs went on: “Winning the title – and that £40m, which is astronomical money for Scottish football – would be a gamechanger for Rangers and Celtic can’t allow that to happen.
“If they do then the fans won’t forget or forgive the people responsible for it.”