David Healy urges Rangers to give Celtic guard of honour

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Former Rangers favourite David Healy has urged the club to show Celtic the respect they deserve on Sunday at Ibrox.

The guard of honour debate was put to bed yesterday when Rangers reportedly decided that they won’t be giving Celtic one. That’s despite the fact this is the first game since the Hoops became champions.

Last season, Hearts were happy to show Celtic the required respect at Tynecastle by giving them their own guard of honour. The Jambos and the Hoops have never been the best of pals, but it was common decency.

And Healy believes that Rangers aren’t doing the right thing in refusing to do a guard this weekend. Speaking in the Sun, the ex-Rangers striker said that Celtic have more than earned it.

“In this day and age I firmly believe that it would be in the right spirit to do it.

“It’s not for me to say what’s right or wrong, or to be critical of a club I have so much respect for. However, my personal opinion is Celtic have more than earned the right for any team to give them a guard of honour.

“They have won the title with two games left and are deserved champions. Looking at it from the outside, I think it would go down very well. Epecially following all of the negative issues in Scottish football this season.”

The players likely won’t even care

So many different voices of Scottish football have been giving their reaction to this. It’s actually quite surprising how far it’s been taken.

Rangers’ decision not to do it, however, is hardly surprising. The nature of the rivalry between the sides contains a clear lack of respect.

It’s a slight shame, however, that class won’t win the day in this debate. Rivalry and a case of feeling too proud appear to have gotten the better of the Ibrox side.

But the Celtic players likely aren’t even thinking about it. If anything, it’s just a funny sideshow to them ahead of what’s a crucial match at Ibrox in terms of painting the picture for next season.

With the decision having been made, it’s now time to focus on the game as a whole. But Healy’s words are spot on, and it’s still a slightly poor show from the Ibrox side.