Ange Postecoglou earlier this year famously told us that he doesn’t look over the garden fence to see what the neighbours are up to and that certainly held Celtic in good stead as a six points deficit at the top of the league was overturned and by 2 February his side were top of the table and never allowed those neighbours back into it, going on to add the Scottish premiership title to the League Cup that was won just before Christmas.
So it’s unlikely that the Celtic manager will be paying too much attention to the recent comings and goings at Ibrox where their best two players have been sold and a bunch of new arrivals coming in including Ben Davies, a former Neil Lennon target for the Hoops.
Lennon though was looking at the player on a Bosman and certainly wouldn’t have been spending an incredible £4m of a player who opted instead to sign for Liverpool where he never kicked a ball for them.
Chris Sutton this morning in his always insightful newspaper column compares the recent cash splash at Ibrox with the events of two decades ago when the previous Ibrox club did something similar which of course was a recipe for financial disaster and the death of their football club, the one whose names still remain on the gates over on the south side of the city.
Sutton remembers a £40m cash spree to try to stop Celtic twenty years ago and recalls at the time Celtic paying little attention to that reckless spending, instead Martin O’Neill simply concentrated on his own players and performances.
“Some Celtic fans might be looking at the Rangers recruitment drive across the city and starting to feel a bit nervous about the coming season. But the people who matter inside Celtic Park need to ignore what’s going on in Govan – just like we did in 2000,” Sutton noted in his Daily Record column today.
Sutton notes that their recent activity in bringing in players is nothing new from Ibrox clubs, with the latest club seemingly failing to learn the lessons of the past from their predecessors. “It’s nothing new,” says the former Celtic striker.
“Celtic fans fondly remember the summer of 2000 fondly. Presumably because that’s when I arrived,” he joked. “There were others too with Alan Thompson and Joos Valgaeren, Didier Agathe and Rab Douglas, followed by Neil Lennon a few months later as Martin O’Neill’s era got under way.
“People forget what Rangers did that summer. They spent absolute fortunes.
“Huge amounts were thrown at the likes of Ronald de Boer, Fernando Ricksen, Bert Konterman, Peter Lovenkrands and Kenny Miller. They also shattered the Scottish transfer record by signing my old Chelsea teammate Tore Andre Flo for £12m.
“It must have been about a £40m outlay which sure puts this summer’s spree in to context.
“But we didn’t bat an eyelid back then and Celtic’s shouldn’t now. It’s about what they do in the market and you’ve got to say Ange Postecoglou hasn’t got much wrong so far,” Sutton noted.
Wise words today from the big Englishman, who incidentally still remains banned from Ibrox unlike the pathetic hacks from the BBC, who this week issued an apology for simply reporting the truth. Shameful really.
Statement: BBC and Rangers FC pic.twitter.com/RncPoxAHOI
— BBC Scotland Comms (@BBCScotComms) July 20, 2022
