Raman Bhardwaj was almost licking the screen at the STV offices today as he spoke via Zoom to Dave King, whose plants look like they need a good drink. Probably a bit like the Celtic support. King couldn’t resist kicking Celtic, indeed he seemed to speak more about our club than his own as he tried to explain from his warped perspective how Celtic managed to blow Ten-in-Row.
King reckoned that Celtic thought they’d won the league before a ball was kicked this season. He told STV News that the Parkhead club thought they’d won the league before a ball was even kicked this season.
“At the beginning of this season, even at the corporate level marketing Ten-in-a-Row, I think they weren’t quiet about it, they were arrogant about it, quite frankly,” King claimed. “A little bit of hubris crept in there and they actually approached the season as if the ten was done. They even had shirts out there with ten-in-a-row.
“They got ahead of themselves a little bit. Celtic felt that the gap that they had going into this year was enough to see (the)Rangers off for another season.
“They knew we were catching up, but I think they felt ‘we don’t have to make too much of an investment – we’ve got them for one more year’.
“We can do ten without investing in the squad. I think Celtic underinvested in the squad with the belief that they had enough in the tank to see us off.”
Celtic of course did invest heavily in the playing squad over the summer and also retained many of the top players at the club -such as Odsonne Edouard, Ryan Christie and Kristoffer Ajer – despite them seeking to leave after the 9IAR season was completed.
King talked about being in tears after Steven Gerrard won his club’s first ever major honour on Sunday after Celtic failed to win at Tannadice, thus confirming theRangers as Champions. “The satisfaction is in winning the league. Do I think it’s different under Steven versus another manager? I haven’t really thought about it in that context, it was more about getting (the)Rangers back to the top and I wouldn’t have minded which manager got us there.
“There is a level of satisfaction knowing we backed and trusted someone and that he actually delivered for us, the club and the supporters.
King reckons his mission is now complete having brought the new club from the lower leagues where it began life to become Champions of Scotland. “I do. I had a chat with Tav (James Tavernier) this morning to thank him for his role as captain and getting us to where we are today.
“I reminded him about the first game after regime change because he played in that team. We all went through to Cowdenbeath. We fought a very hard 0-0 draw against Cowdenbeath.
“The next target is to defend the title,” King said. “The team has to kick on and improve. We will move into the Champions League where the competition will be tougher. So there are a lot of challenges ahead.”
hes got a point!