It is impossible to point to a resumption of hostilities that never actually ceased. Celtic v Rangers at lunchtime on Saturday is their first meeting on league business since 2012 but they remained linked by mutual antipathy even when the Ibrox club were consigned to Scottish football’s bottom tier. Any sense the Old Firm no longer exists as a commercial entity is exposed by ticket prices for the fixture, which are way in excess of standard Premiership matches. The lucrative circus is back in town.
Lingering resentment remains. An element of the Rangers support maintains the club was badly treated by the Scottish scene following financial meltdown. Similarly, a rump of Celtic’s following believe their oldest foes were not dealt with harshly enough four years ago. The undeniable, unspoken truth is that through no fault of their own it was Celtic who suffered more than any other team as Rangers instead faced challenges from clubs such as Stranraer and Elgin City.
The question is whether Rangers can survive an encounter with the wave of momentum that has built up from the sunny summer afternoon when Brendan Rodgers was announced in front of 12,000 awestruck onlookers in Glasgow’s east end. Celtic are back in the Champions League and have already shown themselves as vastly superior to any opposition on the domestic front.
Rangers may privately admit they are not on the same level as their neighbours but defeat in this game, let alone a heavy one, would still sting. Unsurprisingly, the Rangers manager, Mark Warburton, played heavily on the role of underdog this week. Warburton also conceded the different level of passion as displayed in Glasgow, in contrast even to the Tottenham v Arsenal fixture he was reared on.
For all the former Brentford manager may rail against the level of scrutiny, routinely of the negative variety, which accompanies his post, Warburton should realise by now this comes with Old Firm territory. One team’s success automatically equals the other’s crisis.
Rodgers has no such concerns. Everything he touches, including tactically, was turning to gold before the injury scare that has threatened the involvement of the prolific Leigh Griffiths. Rodgers is rejuvenated, in contrast to the haunted figure who sleepwalked through the closing stages of his tenure at Liverpool.
“At Melwood with Liverpool you used to walk in every morning and the European Cup was sat there,” Rodgers says. “You walked past it and thought: ‘I’d better be good today.’ And then you walk around Celtic Park, seeing the European Cup in their trophy cabinet as well, you say: ‘Right, I’d better be good here.’
“But they have invested so much into me here, the supporters. I think they probably see me as one of their own and all I am here to do is serve them.
“My legacy here hopefully will be the feeling I can give people. People talk about a legacy on the outside. The legacy I hope I can leave here is a feeling inside. That’s important.
“My memory will always be that I made the people at Liverpool happy for a period of time. Lots of Liverpool supporters I meet thank me for that time. Then you move on. That’s how life works. You take on another challenge and for me when you come out of Liverpool, it’s not just about any club then, it’s about the right club. So many times the staff I’ve brought here with me have said: ‘What a great move, Brendan.’
“I could have stayed in the Premier League, could’ve worked there and had everything that goes with that but I couldn’t be happier anywhere in the world at the minute. The city has been great – looked after us very well – and so has the club.”
Rodgers, a boyhood Celtic supporter from Northern Ireland, knows the unique sentiment attached to the Old Firm meeting. This will, however, be the first one he has attended. “I remember watching, going back to Billy Stark and Tommy Burns in midfield,” the 43-year-old says. “I loved Paul McStay and I admired Davie Cooper because I was a left-footer. I always watched the lefties and thought Davie Cooper was a brilliant player. He was a class footballer who sadly passed away very young.
“In Ireland – and it is not just my family – for lots of supporters of Celtic and Rangers it is their passion, isn’t it? I moved away at 16 and you learn to respect both sides. I have had a lot of Rangers fans coming up to me and thanking me for coming here – and showing me their tattoo – and then walking on and smiling. Hopefully, they still do that after this game.”
Typically, there are fascinating sub-plots. Joey Barton’s contribution to the Scottish scene thus far has been of the verbal rather than football variety and little of that has been positive. Celtic Park would be the ideal location for Barton to justify his self-assessed status. His direct midfield opponent will be Celtic’s captain, Scott Brown. “What you see now with Scott is a 31-year-old man with maturity,” Rodgers says. “A guy who understands the consequence of what happens on the field and has now matured to a new level.”
For all Celtic are the overwhelming favourites, Rangers can draw hope from their surprise success in the Scottish Cup semi-final of last season. On that Hampden afternoon, Warburton’s men outthought and outplayed a Celtic team then managed by Ronny Deila.
“We would all love to say we can play a certain way and win,” Rodgers says. “But we have to win the game. Performance is important and your idea of football is important but these are games you want to win.
“It’s a good chance for us to put our marker down early on and then that will be four really good teams in this league we have played against. It will be a measure of how far we have come in the last four months.”
If there is a pre-match negative, it resonates in the direct scheduling against the Manchester derby. The eyes of the wider, non-partisan world will be diverted towards Old Trafford. Do not, though, speculate to Rodgers that he has landed in a second‑rate scene. “The Premier League is the most competitive league in the world, there’s no question about that,” he says. “For me it was about the club. If you look throughout Europe, at maybe Italy, Spain, you’ve only got two or three teams and those teams will win.
“If I worked at Barcelona I’d have won a trophy by now, no question about that. But in the English Premier League, where the British managers are being judged and measured, it’s very tough. What you’ll have this year in the Premier League are some really good managers, who have good CVs abroad, who won’t win a trophy. If that’s a British manager, they’d be deemed not so good.
“I came here because of Celtic, it wouldn’t have mattered what anyone said. Whatever league you’re in, it’s competitive. Yes, the Scottish league isn’t the Premier League but the Italian league isn’t the Premier League and the Spanish league is not the Premier League. I came here to Celtic, to one of the biggest clubs in the world. You’ll see that on Saturday, you see it in European games, we’ve seen it over history. I’m delighted to be here.”
