Rangers V Celtic: Old Firm derby becomes 'double jeopardy' as pressure returns
Rangers V Celtic heads to Ibrox on Sunday as a must-win clash in which a draw will do little, with Hearts stubbornly holding the top of the Scottish Premiership and the two Glasgow giants suddenly facing threats from all sides.
Rangers V Celtic at Ibrox raises the stakes
The fixture will be staged at Ibrox between the league’s second and third-placed clubs, and pressure has returned to both Rangers and Celtic ahead of what the preview called a must-win on Sunday. Martin O'Neill turns 74 on the day, and the piece warned a draw would be of little use to either side; the game, it said, demands a winner — and if there is a winner there has to be a loser.
Owners, spending and dressing-room drama
Rangers’ owner Andrew Cavenagh is described as having removed a manager, a chief executive and a sporting director, and then spent millions in the January window on top of millions in the summer. The club now have Danny Rohl as a popular manager and what the preview called ambition in the boardroom. The side also registered a "£20m net spend" in the summer and went again in January, and the last decade of European football brought the club close to £100m in revenue.
Celtic's boardroom anger and manager crisis
Celtic supporters are said to be apoplectic with their board and split over how to express that anger, with social media described as argumentative and accusatory and toxicity pervasive. The review states Celtic currently need to find a manager and that the same people who appointed Wilfried Nancy are in charge of that search, leaving the club looking directionless. Financial notes in the preview list Celtic’s estimated £195m from prize money and television rights over the past decade, three player sales at £25m apiece, five sales between £10-£20m and other transfers in the £5-£10m bracket, and cash reserves of £67m.
Outside threats: Hearts and Motherwell closing in
Hearts are described as proving stubborn at the top of the Scottish Premiership and remaining ahead of the Old Firm, with Rangers still behind Derek McInnes’ Hearts. When the Glasgow clubs look over their shoulders they see Motherwell, praised as winning and entertaining and "almost incapable of conceding a goal in the league" under manager Jens Berthel Askou. The piece also noted relative European earnings: Rangers close to £100m in a decade, Hearts about a tenth of that, and Motherwell about a tenth of Hearts.
