By Celtic’s standards, a poor start to the season is sitting second in the table and being two points behind the leaders, Hearts.
But for Rangers, it’s not only sitting in the bottom half of the Premiership table, but also the Ibrox club being rejected by Steven Gerrard.
This isn’t anything new for Rangers because for two decades now, they have been the embarrassment of Scottish football, as Celtic continue to dominate on the domestic circuit.
But despite the success of the champions of Scotland, Ally McCoist says there is one thing Celtic ‘refuse’ to do, as their rivals continue to burn and suffer.
Celtic ‘refuse to press forward’ amid Rangers’ continued demise
Celtic fans have been protesting against the board, including the mess they made of the 2025 summer transfer window.
When looking at the whole picture of Scottish football, McCoist thinks, both Celtic and Rangers are ‘average’, and the champions have been ‘brought down’ by their rivals.
Speaking on talkSPORT, McCoist feels a reason behind that is a ‘refusal’ from Celtic’s part to ‘press forward’ because they have looked at Rangers and thought, ‘we have got them.’
“I think it’s pretty straightforward,” said McCoist. “If you are the Celtic manager, you have to beat Rangers, and if you are the Rangers manager, you have to beat Celtic. History will tell you that.
“Aberdeen were a perfect example last year. Won their first 12 games and were absolutely flying. Then finished 20 points or something behind Rangers.
“Hearts this year might be different. They look as though they have a wee bit more about them – they are up against two of the most average Celtic and Rangers sides I can remember in a long, long time.
“As a train of thought, which I actually buy into, that Rangers have been that poor, they have brought Celtic down.
“Celtic, in many ways, and it will be interesting to hear the Celtic supporters’ views, have taken their eye off the ball and stood still, if not gone back the way, because they have refused to press forward.
“They have looked across the city and thought, ‘we have got them. We will sort them out. It’s all that matters.’ Whereas they haven’t moved on at all. So, Rangers and Celtic, I think, are poor. I really do.”
McCoist gutted over Steven Gerrard rejection
There is always a lot of noise from Rangers fans, even when the 49ers took over and brought added investment into the club in the summer, Celtic were warned.
Those same warning shots were fired when talk of Gerrard returning started floating about, yet forward in reality, it’s the same old story.
That’s including McCoist expressing how gutted he is at Gerrard rejecting the Gers, despite supposedly being a club legend.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” said McCoist about Gerrard turning down Rangers. “It probably disappoints me a little bit, just selfishly.
“I don’t know why he has turned it down. I genuinely don’t. There are rumours knocking about that he had to stay out of the country for a certain period of time. It was going to cost him an awful lot of money in taxes. I don’t know if that’s true.
“I think the actual job itself would very much appeal to him. It’s probably a good time to get the job because you would think the new owners would have money to spend.
“I don’t think the team can get any lower. I really don’t. They have got to start moving up the league and producing better performances. The majority of performances haven’t been good enough.”
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
