Chris Sutton has never been a man to mince his words when it comes to his own opinion, during his short time as a pundit the big Englishman has irked just about everyone with his no nonsense, cut to the chase style of punditry that is completely alien to the vast number of hacks masquerading as journalists in this country. Most of the vitriol aimed at Chris has come from the Sevco fans who are so used to binging on a diet of feelgood stories that they automatically see any truthful statement as an attack on their club. Chris, to his great credit does not allow the hate to cloud his judgement, nor does he suffer the same fate other less brave souls have by reverting to the powderpuff journalistic approach that helped consign original Rangers to the liquidation bin. Chris is a respected pundit and when he talks people listen. Let's hope the powers that be at Celtic Park have their ears pricked up where the big man's latest point is concerned. Chris wants Dermot Desmond and the Celtic board to go for the jugular and "finish Rangers forever"
Let's rewind back to 2012 when original Rangers knew their fate and a team called Sevco was about to take their place in the Scottish Third Division. Celtic were doing OK on their own and the connection between club and fans was something special due to then manager Neil Lennon's siege mentality approach against evil Sevco fans, desperate to inflict harm on the Celtic boss. Sevco changed their name to Rangers and set about gaining three successive promotions that would see them arrive at the top league ready to challenge Celtic as fiercely as the original club had. Most of the Sevco fans took this for granted and weren't banking on their severe gullibility ensuring crucial money was taken out of the club by a group of conmen and Ally McCoist, arguably the biggest con merchant of all helped himself to a EPL wage to beat teams consisting of plumbers and brickies. As Rangers wasted millions it was surely inevitable that Celtic would stretch their financial muscle and obliterate their footballing rivals once and for all. It didn't happen.
Celtic decided to bring in Norwegian boss Ronny Deila, a man with a good reputation in Norway but hardly the sort of name to get bums on seats and strike fear into the hearts of the opposition. Whatever the ins and outs of Ronny's time at the club it was probably a success on the league front with two titles secured while Rangers missed the boat on promotion from the Championship at the first time of asking. Several players were brought in but nothing of the calibre you would expect. Questions were even asked as to who was signing the players with John Park at the top of everyone's list of suspects, closely followed by Peter Lawell. Indeed the whole club had a malaise about it that suggested they were resting on their laurels awaiting the return of a club called Rangers to the league. Was it true? Possibly and there is plenty of evidence to back up the theory. Consider the amount of loan deals that were done during this time and try to convince anyone there was long term planning at the club. During this time we missed out on several Champions League paydays and opportunities to move into a completely different stratosphere from our newest rivals. Most fans agree that the events of April 17th 2016 changed club policy forever.
Celtic and lower division Rangers met in the Scottish Cup semi-final and what happened that day laid bare the shocking lack of leadership and forward planning at Celtic in the past few years. All the penny pinching, SPL signings and loan deals highlighted the soulless state of the club as Celtic's failed model saw their chickens come home to roost in horrific fashion as they lost to a team called Rangers playing in the second tier of Scottish football. Fans were outraged and rightly so because they had been given a fantastic oppurtunity to destroy Rangers once and for all. Yes the war was over and the rebels had won but in being so complacent they had allowed a new threat to emerge from the ashes of the dead club. Rangers directors were openly mocking the Celtic board after the game and their conduct breached the age old agreement about sporting equity between the two boards. Supposedly the behaviour of the Rangers directors that day is alleged to have made something snap inside Celtic's majority shareholder Dermot Desmond and finally Celtic were awoken from their slumber and ready to do battle. Desmond is said to have wanted them embarrassed and put back in their place. Deila was sacked and Brendan Rodgers was brought in to oversee a completely new dawn at the club.
Celtic have fulfilled Dermot's wishes this season by some stretch, new Rangers have fallen a massive 19 points behind and have been mangled and embarrassed by the Hoops but there surely has to be more to come? Sutton is adamant Celtic must not make the same mistake as they did in 2012 and he is bang on the money in his assessment. 10 In a Row is in our sights and we have a tremendous opportunity to beat the old club's trophy haul of 54 titles. Fans are back onside and the connection has never been stronger. We must not rest on our laurels and the failed model which saw Celtic come unstuck should never again be allowed to rear it's ugly head. We are Scotland's premier club and we want it to remain that way for as long as we can.
Hail Hail
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