Chris Sutton has lambasted the Rangers players for their “Glasgow is Blue” propaganda after beating Celtic.
The Celtic hero has laughed off the over-the-top celebrations of our Glasgow rivals after yesterday’s derby success for them. Rangers closed the gap to within six points with a 2-0 win over Celtic, but the Hoops had already won the league title.
It didn’t stop Rangers players from going on social media and having a dig at Celtic in any case. The likes of James Tavernier and Wes Foderingham boasted that “Glasgow is Blue” on social media post-match.
But tonight on BT Sport’s Scottish Football Extra programme (13th May, 18:30), Sutton went through Rangers for their antics.
“No pressure – anybody can play (when there’s no pressure). Rangers’ best run of the season? When the league is over. You judge players under pressure.
“All the celebrations to me, and I wasn’t for Celtic celebrating when they beat Rangers earlier on, but all the celebrations tells me the mentality within the Rangers dressing room. Tweets going out – “Glasgow is Blue” – from players who have won a Petrol Tank Cup, Petrofac Cup, whatever it’s called.
“If that was me I would be furious, so angry about the fact we hadn’t won the league this season. I wouldn’t celebrate a meaningless game when the league is done and dusted. They are soft.”
It’s the hope that kills
You have to wonder whether Rangers are falling into the same traps as previous years gone by. Their hope is slowly turning into expectation, and it feels as though there’s an over-confidence after yesterday’s success.
But Celtic have to make sure they come back to Ibrox next time a much more solid and threatening beast. It all points to a busy summer, with a host of areas needing replacements or bolstered.
As it stands, Celtic have four players leaving the club as their loan deals come to an end. Several others including Dedryck Boyata, Mikael Lustig, Cristian Gamboa, and Dorus de Vries are out of contract. Whilst that allows us to get rid of some of the deadwood, Celtic also need to replace it with genuinely quality, and not just numbers.
It was extremely telling yesterday when Lennon turned to his bench that he lacked options. Celtic may have had their injury concerns, but only having Scott Sinclair and Olivier Ntcham available as potential attacking substitutions is laughable.
The tweets from Rangers players is just par for the course. Celtic can use that as motivation, but it is also a sign of disrespect to a squad who have sealed eight consecutive titles and are on the cusp of a treble treble.
Humbleness doesn’t spread around Ibrox. We know that already. And it’s all the more reason for us to pull their pants down once again come the start of next season.
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