With Rangers chipping away at Celtic’s lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership reaching its climax last night, it seems like we are set for one of the tightest title challenges for a number of years.
Neck-and-neck at the top of the table, this weekend will see the Celtic support heading to Parkhead to see what Brendan Rodgers‘ team will take on Kilmarnock.
And if truth be told, the starting lineup could consist of anything. We have seen Rodgers tinker with the team of late due to injury and these changes have paid dividends over the past two games.
But what can’t be denied is that the fans are getting bored of watching their side toil against the smaller teams in the league.
That has set in a general malaise at games where the Celtic support can, at times, feel detached due to the quality of football they have been watching.
And that has led to Aberdeen legend, Willie Miller, saying that there seems to be a disconnect between this Celtic team and the fans compared to those across the city.
Miller said [Scottish Football Podcast], “There just seems to be a connection between the Rangers players and the Rangers fans I haven’t seen for many, many years and I don’t think that’s the same at Celtic just now.
“I think there’s a kind of an atmosphere at Celtic Park where they’re not enjoying it as much, there’s not as much connection.
“I don’t know, but Brendan Rodgers doesn’t seem to be that enthusiastic about what he’s trying to do this season at times whereas I think that Clemente is super enthusiastic.”
Willie Miller’s comments just underpin how Celtic have dominated Rangers
As ever, the connection between the Celtic fans and the players is mostly underpinned by success on the pitch.
Admittedly, the performances have been poor but Celtic are still in with a shout to complete a league and cup double.
Most of the disconnect comes because of off-field matters rather than what’s going on on the pitch. Unrest about the lack of transfer business in January coupled with the players being brought in during the summer and being tagged as not good enough months later have led to the supporters feeling a bit disenchanted with what’s going on at their club.
The fact that the Rangers support is getting so excited about a season that, in all honesty, has lacked quality from both teams just tells you how Celtic’s dominance over the past 20 years has affected the Ibrox support.
Starved of any real sustained periods of success, the Rangers supporters are clinging on to the fact that they have managed to get close to Celtic this season when normally, we are out of sight.
In other news, Chris Sutton says there’s one thing which Brendan Rodgers simply cannot do at Celtic now
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