As we continue to trickle along with the winter break, you can’t help but laugh at the continued paranoia from the Rangers support.
The narrative that’s been following us since the vote to pull back the break by a week is that we did it because we were scared of facing the Ibrox club. That we couldn’t stand the thought of coming up against them minus the likes of Jota, James Forrest, and Chris Jullien. Minus our new signings.
The game at Celtic Park, originally scheduled for January 2nd, has been rescheduled until February 2nd. And unsurprisingly, Rangers fans are forgetting to mention that we’ll likely be without some top stars regardless. Kyogo Furuhashi, Tom Rogic, and Daizen Maeda could very well be away on international duty.
That’s 3 players Celtic fans would hope would be impactful in the Glasgow derby being stripped away from our ranks. But irrespective of that, the narrative has followed that the Hoops somehow fear Rangers.
Yet at this point, you wonder if our rivals are trying to convince themselves of that more than anything. Why a club who are 6 points clear would care so much about when they play their rivals is a touch confusing. Do they not trust their team to get the job done in front of a packed Parkhead?
Whether we get increased fan figures for the February clash remains to be seen. But the whole situation appears to have Rangers fans desperate to tell anyone who’ll listen that this was a decision made in fear.
Rangers fans desperate to mask their fear of Celtic
They’re forgetting 2 key things here. Firstly, 10 other Scottish Premiership clubs made the decision to bring forward the winter break. Did they all do that in fear of their next games too? Or are our rivals simply too blinded by hatred to acknowledge that having more fans in would make for a better spectacle?
You then have the fact that Celtic dominated large stages of the Ibrox derby back in August. We have absolutely nothing to fear here, and even though we lost that game 1-0, Celtic had a host of chances that they should’ve taken advantage of.
Even though the gap is 6 points, Rangers didn’t expect this revival from Celtic. Given how last year ended, they didn’t expect such a strong fight for the title. They didn’t think we would go on the winning runs we have done this season.
If Rangers were as relaxed about their position as top dogs as they make out, their supporters wouldn’t be coming across as overly desperate regarding the winter break. There’s a real paranoia creeping in and it stems from the improvement that’s occurred at Celtic Park.
Time will tell whether we win the league title of course. Time will tell whether we even win the next Glasgow derby. But the fact is that Celtic are on the right path and the Rangers supporters simply don’t like it. In fact, they can’t stand it. This isn’t how things were supposed to go.
Whether Celtic winning the League Cup has only increased those paranoia levels is anyone’s guess. But the Hoops should be smelling the fear. They know we’re a lot closer to them than they could ever have imagined only 6 months ago. Hopefully, we can overtake them again in the second half of the campaign.
In other news, Benfica support overwhelmingly show opposition to Jota Celtic sale in Portuguese newspaper
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
