Celtic's Boli Bolingoli not interested in Rangers' form

By David Walton

October 21, 2019

Celtic defender Boli Bolingoli-Mbombo has stated that he isn’t bothered by how Rangers are doing.

The Ibrox men made a mess of going to Tynecastle for yesterday’s lunch-time kick-off. Ryataro Meshino and Alfredo Morelos traded goals to draw the game 1-1. It was just enough to keep Celtic at the top of the table by a single goal.

It’s been extremely tight so far for the first nine fixtures of the season. Neither side has been able to run up a substantial lead over the other just yet. Celtic, however, will have been delighted by Rangers’ slip-up yesterday.

Ryataro Meshino’s goal kept Celtic at the top of the table (Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

However, Boli has stated that he doesn’t care much for what Rangers do. Speaking in the Daily Record, here’s what the little Belgian had to say.

“We are just looking at our games. We lost the game at Livingston and that was a pity, but we just do your job.

“What Rangers are doing is good, they are doing well. Good for them. But we will just stay focused on our games until the end of the season.

“Only then we will see who is going to be the champions. The confidence is there, there is no pressure in the team and we are doing good now at the moment.”

Difficult to agree – how many players will be the same?

There are undoubtedly players and supporters who won’t watch our rivals. They will likely just concentrate on how we do knowing everything is still currently in our own hands.

Boli will have plenty who agree with him (Michael Campanella/Getty Images)

However, it’s difficult to imagine that nobody watches our rivals in a game as big as yesterday. It has a massive ripple effect on us, and you can hardly blame supporters for wanting to tune in.

For someone such as Boli, particularly with him being new to Scotland, you could understand him not caring much for Rangers at all. He firmly seems to believe that nobody can stop us if we perform the way we know we can. And, in a domestic sense, he would be right.

But it’s a theme we hear from so many clubs and so many players. This idea that they don’t watch their rivals because they can’t affect the outcome, or that they don’t care much for how they’re doing. Plenty love to say it, but actually not doing is a different matter.

Many fans would rather concentrate on how we do (Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

The Hearts-Rangers game yesterday was extremely tempting if you believed our rivals were going to drop points. It’s imperative that we continue to build momentum. However, the league will only be won if our rivals drop points continuously throughout the season.

You can, therefore, see why some supporters will want to watch them. There are clearly two camps when it comes to this subject, and both have plenty of people in them.