Sutton urges Celtic to consider postponing derby; brings up rivals' embarrassing 2012 requests

By David Walton

January 13, 2022

Chris Sutton has encouraged Celtic to consider postponing the Glasgow Derby given the player shortages that will likely be in place.

The Hoops are scheduled to face Rangers on February 2nd. That will mean the likes of Daizen Maeda, Reo Hatate, Kyogo Furuhashi, and Tom Rogic could all miss out due to international duty. Not to mention Cameron Carter-Vickers could also be off with the USA if he’s hit with a surprising recall.

With so many players away, Celtic would have grounds to call for a postponement of the fixture. Something Rangers did back when they were in division 3 during the 2012/13 campaign [Daily Record].

And Sutton has encouraged Celtic to seize the opportunity of a potential postponement in order to face their rivals at full strength. Speaking on the Record Celtic Podcast, he said: “Do Celtic want to win the league or not? If they do want to win things then they stand a far better chance with their best players in the side. They have three big games coming up they can’t afford to drop points in and I think they’re well within their rights to call the games off.

“Mick [Michael Gannon] made a pertinent point by saying that while Rangers fans might complain about that, I think they called games off when they were in Division Three, didn’t they, playing against the likes of Cowdenbeath, Forfar, or whoever else, when Ally McCoist was manager, so there can’t be complaints from the other side.

“Celtic have to do what’s right for them.”

Chris Sutton makes some good points, but how would Celtic postponement go down?

You have to acknowledge the points made by Chris here. He’s spot on to bring up the postponements Rangers made when they had the likes of Dean Shiels and Andrew Little away with Northern Ireland. Total embarrassment stuff from them at the time, and Chris is right to bring it up once again.

However, at the moment, it’s difficult to know whether the SPFL would look kindly on a postponement request. With not many midweek opportunities to play the game again, it throws up a real challenge for them. Remember, the request can be denied, and it feels as though that would likely happen if Celtic took this further.

With the league also having to take the bad weather and potential Covid-related call-offs, it would be tough to push through.

Granted, it doesn’t look as though this is something Celtic are even considering at the moment. There’s been no indication that the Hoops plan to push the game back.

And in truth, you could understand why we would want to keep it going too. It would provide talented players with big opportunities to impress and Celtic desperately need to try and secure a win over their rivals before long.

Regardless, there’s no reason for us to accept any goading from our rivals. Not when they were apparently scared of Queen of the South heading to Ibrox back in 2012.

In other news, Celtic’s Japanese trio already making a big impression inside Lennoxtown