There's something familiar when Alan Stubbs looks at one half of the Old Firm.
He sees a band of brothers, forged by team spirit and togetherness.
The former Celtic star can see shades of his Hoops side that stopped Rangers winning 10 in a row but unfortunately for him, this time the traits are being shown by the boys in blue.
Stubbs reckons there has been a total role reversal in Glasgow and he has concerns going into the final meeting of the giants this weekend.
There is only pride and temporary bragging rights at stake – but sometimes that is enough. However, Stubbs believes his old club will have their work cut out yet again.
That’s because the attributes that have fired Gers to the title in Ibrox have been sadly lacking in the east end.
How do the teams compare right now?
“Celtic are the complete opposite,” Stubbs suggests. Rangers have a core of UK players who know what is required to perform with the club, while Celtic have a raft of loans and individuals who are eying the next gig around the corner.
Stubbs said: “The one thing we had when stopping 10 in a row was a really strong dressing room. There was quite a British core to it, and when you look across at what Steven Gerrard has done at Rangers, the predominant core of that group is British.
“They understand what was in front of them and what was needed.
“With the foreign players, though they might give you that little bit of extra quality, they can sometimes lack in terms of that feeling of the club and being part of that.
“I look at the two teams now, and at Rangers there is a real togetherness, and everybody knows what is expected of them.
“I look at Celtic and I see an individualism with them, and not a collective team.”
Stubbs is looking beyond Sunday’s showdown and at the bigger picture at Parkhead.
He believes the new management team – if it’s Eddie Howe or whoever eventually takes control – will need to get away from the quick fix and stepping stone signings.
Stubbs said: “You’ve got to be careful that you don’t bring in players that use the club as a springboard, and they buy into what you want to do. That is huge.
“When you have so many loan signings, it’s difficult for them to really get a feel for the club, because whether it’s for six months or a season, it doesn’t bring stability for me. It’s very easy when things are not going well for people to say ‘you know what, I can go back to my parent club’.
“But when you’ve got a player who’s been there for a number of years, you have to buy into what is needed.
“I really don’t feel as if the foreign players got it.
“And I don’t want to put all the blame on them as that’s not right, but in terms of understanding the enormity of what was at stake this season, if they did get it then it didn’t come across that they really understood it.”
Stubbs insisted there can be no underestimating the task in hand at Parkhead.
He was part of the Wim Jansen revolution in 1997 that eventually won the title. He was part of another rebuild under Martin O’Neill in 2000 that set a new benchmark in Scotland.
But those were minor tweaks compared to the colossal overhaul required this summer.
Back in 1997, Jansen signed Henrik Larsson, Paul Lambert, Marc Rieper, Craig Burley and Darren Jackson, but he already had Stubbs, Tom Boyd, Simon Donnelly and Jackie McNamara.
O’Neill added Chris Sutton, Alan Thompson, Neil Lennon and John Hartson, but already had Henrik Larsson, Johan Mjallby, Stan Petrov and Lubo Moravcik.
Stubbs looks at the current squad and it could be David Turnball, Callum McGregor and James Forrest left – and McGregor could even be poached as well.
The ex-defender reckons the clock is ticking for Celtic to even be a force next season.
Stubbs said: “Whoever is coming in, I can’t stress enough, that they need to be in as soon as possible, because it’s going to be very difficult to build a championship winning team in six weeks time.
“To get all these players in is going to be so difficult, as well as trying to do well in Europe.
“There’s such a huge job ahead, it could potentially be Celtic’s biggest rebuild that they have ever seen this summer.
“It’s that big, because of the amount of loan players that would be going back, and because of the amount of players that will be looking to leave.”
There’s nothing on the line in Sunday’s Old Firm clash but it could be a chance for some of the Hoops players to prove they can have a future at the club for the new gaffer watching in the background.
Stubbs said: “It’s a difficult one for them because there’s obviously nothing at stake.
“The only thing that is at stake is a potential manager waiting in the wings watching certain players’ performances that will still be under contract when he comes in.
“The one thing you can be sure of, and this is where players let themselves down, is that some of these players will look like different players in six weeks’ time.
“There’s a lot of things going on behind the scenes at Celtic as well that you might never know about that contributed to what has gone on this season.”
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