Decent article by Roddy Forsyth

[Norris Cole 0]

on the value of this season's championship. With a sly dig at the mope's bigotry into the bargain...

 

-----------------------------------------------------------

 

'Winner takes it all' has never been truer after Rangers stagger past Celtic in SPL title race

 

By Roddy Forsyth

 

Two old geezers are shown the brochure of a country club where women of shimmering beauty sit beside the azure pool, sipping Dom Perignon White Gold Jeroboam champagne and waiting for the guests who will accompany them through this garden of delights.

 

The geriatric pair salivate at the thought of a fling in such seductive company and are handed a free pass ââ?¬â?? trouble is, only one gets to walk into the party, while the other has to make it past the bouncers.

 

That's how the Scottish title race looked this season as Celtic and Rangers stumbled and wheezed their way towards the garden of earthly delights, otherwise known as automatic entry to the group stage of the Champions League.

 

It may be that Rangers suffer a seizure when the frolics begin in September, but they have a long summer of fragrant dreams to sustain them until then.

 

By contrast, Celtic fans are only beginning to realise how damaging the loss of their championship crown may prove to be.

 

The austerity regime in force at Celtic Park has preserved the club in good shape to weather the financial turbulence that still lies ahead ââ?¬â?? no mean accomplishment ââ?¬â?? but only by hacking at salary levels until they fell below Championship wage rates.

 

Gordon Strachan shopped in dime stores while ââ?¬â?? for a spell, at any rate ââ?¬â?? preserving the accoutrements of grandeur at a club which assiduously feeds its own mythology.

 

Many among the support and a few within the media have expressed a delight bordering on the vindictive at Strachan's departure and although he was the architect of some of the aggro that was so freely directed at him, his detractors might like to answer this question ââ?¬â?? when will a Scottish team next achieve successive qualifications for the knockout stage of the Champions League?

 

Now the most pressing question for Celtic's directors is how to square the circle of their own logic. Before Strachan, the club paid top dollar to attract good players whose careers had stalled but who had retained the hunger for success at a decent level.

 

Now the staggering wealth of the Premier League in England has distorted the market so that there is a category of accomplished players willing to abide existence in mid-table or below, without any prospect of achieving honours because the financial rewards for simply being there outweigh having to explain to the grandchildren why there are no medals to show for a career in football.

 

Possible canonisation at Parkhead versus no need ever to work again ââ?¬â?? where's the contest?

 

So the template is of a manager on the launch pad or early stages of a soaring career, preferably a proto-Fergie with an unerring eye for emergent talent that can be sold at a healthy profit.

 

Oh ââ?¬â?? and the new man should, if possible, be Celtic-minded, whatever that faintly sinister term means exactly.

 

Owen Coyle seemed to fit that description more than anybody else. In England, the notion that he would consider forgoing the Premier League to move to Celtic has been regarded by many as evidence of a possibly unhinged mind.

 

More sober commentators have observed that Burnley are very likely to be relegated within a season and that at Celtic, Coyle would finish either first or second in his debut campaign, with a guarantee of European football of some sort thereafter.

 

On the other hand, you could look at both prospects as contrasting suicide missions ââ?¬â?? Burnley might be in free fall by December, but whoever takes on Celtic has to produce four big European performances before the end of August, or risk being damned from the start like Strachan.

 

Meanwhile, by virtue of staggering up to the VIP entrance of the Champions League a couple of paces ahead of their perennial rivals, Rangers can conjure heady visions for the next three months.

 

It won't last, of course, but, when that sober thought intrudes, the Ibrox contingent need only look to Parkhead ââ?¬â?? and pass the bubbly.

 

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/scottishpremier/celtic/5402885/Winner-takes-it-all-has-never-been-truer-after-Rangers-stagger-past-Celtic-in-SPL-title-race.html

[Frankie 8,825]

Reasonable article from a serial Rangers hater.

 

He's not backwards in coming forwards when it he talks about our alleged bigotry. Why the shyness here?