Celtic PR coup shows Rangers where bragging rights lie and here's why it's now open season on Ibrox side - Hugh Keevins

Celtic's Arne Engels
-Credit: (Image: SNS Group)


You could call it a subtle PR coup. Or you could be cynical and describe it as a not-so-subtle wind-up designed to underline which Old Firm side is firmly in possession of the bragging rights.

While Rangers were dealing with disillusioned fans erecting a banner calling for the removal of the club’s board last week, Celtic were giving visible meaning to an old saying. If you’ve got it, flaunt it.

On Tuesday, they paraded the Celtic fan with the £1million jersey, Luke McCowan. And on Wednesday it was the club’s record signing, Arne Engels, who was given the red carpet treatment. All £11m of him. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a bit of multi-million pound one-upmanship, of course. Celtic created the wealth off the back of their success on the park and re-invested the money with the intention of becoming even stronger. But now comes the next part of the equation.

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The crowd at Celtic Park on Wednesday night for the Champions League visit of Slovan Bratislava will be loud and proud. Until the match starts.

At that point they will become judge and jury because the support provided the wealth that makes them want to see a return on their money. The customers will become the investors looking for a dividend. Record signings and squad reinforcements still wouldn’t make me put any of my state pension on Celtic winning away from home against Borussia Dortmund, Atalanta, Dinamo Zagreb or Aston Villa in this season’s Champions League. But maximum points from the home games against Slovan Bratislava, Club Brugge, Young Boys and RB Leipzig shouldn’t be out of the question.

None of those clubs has a budget that could be used in mitigation if Celtic were to fail to beat them. This is the ultimate test of Brendan Rodgers’ assertion that Celtic need to compete, as opposed to participate, in this competition.

His civic counterpart, Philippe Clement, meanwhile, was in broken-record mode when he addressed compliant fans at a club backed question-and-answer session on Tuesday. The Belgian made his standard plea for time to get things right and overlooked the fact he works in a city where fans don’t have clocks.

You break the glass and press the alarm bell to signal a state of emergency in Old Firm land. Supporters there have only two settings, contentment or contempt. And contempt for those in charge comes to the fore when internal strife finds you out.

A former Rangers chairman, Dave King, made an abrasive observation on the day the banner writers had their say about two of his successors at Ibrox, Douglas Park and John Bennett, being “asleep at the wheel”. King said: “Our club finds itself in a largely self-inflicted decline. Individual players cannot be held accountable if the combined result of recruitment and team preparation results in poor performance.”

You could interpret those words as a direct criticism of Clement and his chief talent spotter, Nils Koppen. There is no dubiety whatsoever concerning Sunday's game at Tannadice.

Rangers’ sole objective when they play Dundee United is to make sure they don’t make a bad situation even worse. It’s open season on the board, the manager and, despite what King says in their defence, the players.

Individuals have been named as being obstacles to progress by dissenting voices within the club’s support. The manager has been exonerated by the same dissidents. That show of solidarity might not see the day out if Tannadice proves to be problematic.