Steven Gerrard has made a refreshingly honest claim that Celtic will be stronger next season.
The Rangers manager is still basking in the glory of his side’s 2-0 win over the Hoops yesterday. It may have meant little in the context of the season, but it’s provided our rivals with a massive confidence boost heading into the summer.
Everyone knows how poor Celtic were on the day. Every single one of the starting XI didn’t turn up, and the subs weren’t much better either. As expected, the defeat has also led to plenty of gloating from the Rangers players.
Fortunately for them, Gerrard was a bit more at ease today. Speaking at his press conference, he warned his own club to expect improvement from Parkhead ahead of next season.
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Rangers supporters are quite fortunate that their manager isn’t so deluded in his post-match analysis. He recognises that Celtic will be going all out to strengthen this summer. In all likelihood, he should be facing a new managerial adversary too after Neil Lennon’s dismal failure yesterday.
One of the key elements of our domination back in 2016/17 under Brendan Rodgers was the ambition. Rodgers was brought in for no small wage and was allowed to bring in the likes of Moussa Dembele, Scott Sinclair, and Kolo Toure.
Splashing the cash
Celtic were happy to splash the cash on players and wages especially. Rangers, meanwhile, were totally blown out the water by Celtic’s ambition, and they suffered for years because of it.
The Hoops must be eyeing up a similar scenario once again this summer. Gerrard is clearly wary of it, and at the very least it’s nice to see he isn’t getting as carried away as some of his supporters no doubt will be.
The big meeting between ourselves and Rangers will come around August/September time at Ibrox. That will give us an indication of how Celtic’s (hopefully ambitious) summer recruitment drive has gone. But it wouldn’t overly surprise if we came out flying again similar to 2016/17.
If anything, the defeat yesterday was surely a warning shot to the board. Celtic have plenty of money in the coffers given recent sales of the likes of Stuart Armstrong and Moussa Dembele. Champions League qualification over the last two years before now will also have put in something close to €30m in our bank, if this year’s prize money is anything to go by.
Get it sorted Celtic. Regardless of whether we win another treble or not.