They have more targets to aim at than Rangers have – and more fury. Andrew Cavenagh, the Rangers owner, sacked a manager, a chief executive and a sporting director as supporters demanded, then spent millions in January on top of a big summer outlay.
They have a popular manager in Danny Rohl and what looks like boardroom ambition. In the broad scheme, Rangers fans have less to complain about.
Celtic are in a different place. Most supporters are apoplectic with the board and divided over how to show it. On social media they argue among themselves; accusations fly. Toxicity is pervasive, draining and self-defeating. With emotion comes suspicion, bitterness and rancour. The Celtic Way is all of that right now.
Both clubs have been soap operas all season. Rangers have a lot of work, but at least they are pointing the right way. Celtic, with no manager in place and the same unpopular people who appointed Wilfried Nancy in charge of finding one, look directionless.
What plan can there be for rebuilding a team when there’s no manager to oversee it?
The derby always carries tension, but this one has a different vibe. Both face jeopardy not just from each other but from Hearts and Motherwell; the Old Firm are being hounded from below. It’s unique in the lifetime of many watching.
There’s been verbal jousting ahead of Sunday. Luke McCowan, buoyed by a goal and Stuttgart win on Thursday, declared Rangers the best team in the country, despite evidence to the contrary.
“We know that if we’re at it, no team in the league touches us,” he said. He backs his team — fair enough — but Celtic sit third in the Premiership. If not for a string of late winners — 87th and 90th minutes against St Mirren, two 90th-minute winners against Kilmarnock, and a 90th-minute winner against Motherwell — their title hopes would be gone.
Credit to them for finding a way, but those were desperate grinds. Other victories were similarly laboured. O’Neill has dragged them forward, but it has looked tired, stressful and on the edge.
He remains without key defenders — Cameron Carter-Vickers and Alistair Johnston — and Auston Trusty is suspended.
They’ve dropped points in 10 of 27 games. Many issues trace back to the ill-judged Nancy appointment, but under Brendan Rodgers they lost to Dundee and Hearts, and under O’Neill they lost to Hibs and drew with Hearts. Controversial red cards featured, but performances were well below Celtic standards.
Compared to this point last season, Celtic have five fewer league wins, five more losses, 28 fewer goals scored and nine more conceded. They’re 15 points worse off. A year ago they were 13 points clear at the top and had pushed Bayern Munich in the Champions League.
Rangers are three points and three wins down on last season but have lost three fewer games, scored nine more goals and conceded only one more. After a dreadful start, clawing back into contention must feel like a second chance.
McCowan’s comments provoked a response. Rohl pointed out on Friday that Celtic have lost seven games to Rangers’ two. He also questioned why Celtic didn’t push for more goals against Stuttgart and speculated on who O’Neill might pick in goal on Sunday — Viljami Sinisalo, who impressed in Germany, or the increasingly error-prone Kasper Schmeichel.
When talking about another manager’s players, Rohl knew what he was doing — and O’Neill didn’t like it.
“It’s quite extraordinary, an extraordinary comment to make, really,” O’Neill said of Rohl’s take on Celtic’s approach. He called Rohl “a very young man,” effectively telling him to sit down; “He hasn’t been in Glasgow that long, has he?”
Long enough to know what’s at stake and perhaps long enough to get under the skin of an old hand.
Talk is cheap. Talk wins nothing. Both clubs need a win at Ibrox. It’s an Old Firm derby, but not as we’ve known it for a long time.
