LEE WALLACE, the Rangers captain, believes Celtic have recruited a high-profile manager in Brendan Rodgers out of a ‘respect’ for Mark Warburton’s side ahead of the new Premiership campaign.
The Northern Irishman became the highest paid boss in Celtic’s history when he agreed a deal to become Ronny Deila’s successor last month. It marked a change in strategy from the Parkhead board, who will back Rodgers in the transfer market as Celtic look to claim a sixth successive Premiership title next term.
After four years with no challenge from their Old Firm rivals, Celtic will encounter a revitalised Rangers in the coming months as Warburton’s side look to win the league at the first attempt. The Ibrox boss has improved his squad by signing the likes of Joey Barton and Niko Kranjcar so far this summer and Wallace reckons Celtic will have taken notice of the progress that has been made across the city.
“Absolutely it’s a season to look forward to,” he said. “The fact they’ve brought in a manager of that calibre is due out of respect to what we’ve done. They’ve had a look at the semi-final result. But also not just down to that one game, what we did throughout the season and how we’ve been moving forward as a club and the steps we’re making.
“Of course it’s going to be a great exciting league and we’re glad to be going back to good venues in front of good away supports at the top level of Scottish football. Now that we’re back we’ll make sure we’re highly competitive and that comes from every single day’s training at Murray Park, being the best we can as players. We have to make sure we’re in the best possible shape for every matchday. Then we’ll see where that takes us.”
The arrival of a host of new players has given Rangers fans a renewed optimism about what could lie ahead for Warburton’s side after an encouraging first campaign at Ibrox that brought the Championship title and Petrofac Training Cup and a run to the Scottish Cup final.
Boss Warburton has acknowledged that his side must be ‘highly competitive’ next season to satisfy the demands from his own supporters but few outside of Ibrox will expect Rangers to challenge for major honours. Wallace is determined to set his sights as high as possible, though.
“We’re certainly not just going back into the top flight to bed ourselves in,” he said. “That’s wrong, it would go against how we operate as a group and how we are as a football club.
“We’re going to make sure that we’re highly competitive next season. We know we’re not just there to make the numbers up. We’re going to respect the league. A big part of how we move forward is, of course, being respectful to the opposition.
“But the bottom line is we’re not going to change how we play. We had the critics, we had the questions through the course of last season that we wouldn’t be able to adopt that style of play as we move up.
“But let’s just wait and see. We’re not going to change our approach. We’ll of course tweak things here and there, but we’ve assessed things from the end of the season and so far in pre-season that we need to improve on. We’re our own biggest critic. We’ll self-analyse from here until midnight.
“So we’re well aware of what we need to do to get better moving into next season.
“The calibre of player we’ve brought in will help that and will also help us become highly competitive next season.”
An impressive campaign may have ended on a low note for Rangers last month as they missed out on a unique Treble at Hampden but their performances throughout the season were encouraging for Warburton and supporters ahead of their top flight return.
Kilmarnock and Dundee were beaten in the Scottish Cup before the semi-final victory over Celtic at the National Stadium that gave Rangers a renewed optimism for the coming campaign.
It is Rodgers’ side who will start the season as favourites for the Premiership but Wallace knows the Gers have to handle the pressure and keep themselves in the hunt for silverware next term.
“We’re going to respect our opponents,” he said. “It’s great that we’ve got ourselves back in the top flight, back to where we should be playing our football. I’m glad we can stop talking about where we should be — now we are and we can go and be competitive.
“It’s a case now of getting back to what Rangers should be winning, targeting what Rangers have done in the past. Historically, they’ve been a dominant force in Scottish football. So it’s about us making sure that we give all we can so we can get back to winning top Rangers silverware.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel