The Global Club Soccer Rankings certainly hit the headlines yesterday.
There was a fair bit of jubilation at the fact Rangers were ahead of Celtic in the US report. The table is apparently produced using advanced statistics to predict how all 636 clubs will fare.
Celtic were yesterday ranked 106th in it. Rangers, however, managed to be up at 92nd. Only, that’s actually changed significantly today. Just this morning and at the time of writing, Celtic are now ranked 98th whilst our Ibrox rivals are 134th. So we’ve suddenly managed to hop up eight positions, whilst Rangers dropped a huge 42 spots.
Celtic yesterday had a Soccer Power Index score of 62. Today, that’s up to 63.4. This is apparently decided on how many goals each team would score and concede against an average team.
Fine, it’s all a bit complex, and if these kind of tables make people feel better about themselves then fair enough. But it means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things. Many Celtic fans didn’t care they were behind Rangers yesterday, and we don’t care that we’re now ahead of them either.
After all, what’s happened in the last 24 hours alone that has seen such a sizable shift? It certainly doesn’t directly relate to the quality difference between both sides. It seems to include a whole host of different stats.
Global Club Soccer Rankings mean little
For Celtic, it’s absolutely vital that we manage to be ahead of Rangers in one table and one table alone – the Scottish Premiership. Anything outside of that and it means absolutely nothing.
There’s no denying Rangers have strengthened once again this summer. They do look more threatening than they did last season, and it’s down to Celtic to rise to any challenge they receive and boot it out.
If Celtic win the treble this season, nobody will be saying “aye but did you see the Global Club Soccer Rankings”? It’s all immaterial. Neither side’s supporters truly care much for it. It won’t win 10-in-a-row and it won’t stop it either.
There tends to be a fascination in Scotland with exterior tables. We love to see what outsiders think of our teams and how they believe they differ. The idea is that it gives a more neutral and balanced perspective. Whilst that’s plausible, the swift and sizable change in the rankings proves it’s nothing to get excited about.
Neil Lennon won’t care. Steven Gerrard won’t care. And, if we’re all being honest, we shouldn’t really care either.
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