So Craig Bellamy thinks no-one cares what goes on in Scottish football any more?

Brendan Rodgers has been in enough Premier League dressing rooms and canteens on Old Firm day to know otherwise. 

When it comes to matches like tomorrow lunchtime’s first Glasgow grudge match of the season at Ibrox, the Northern Irishman is well aware of the fascination out there which still exists for this particular 90 minutes, separating it from even such spirited local squabbles as Sheffield’s Steel City showdown between Wednesday and United one day later. 

It may be the hope of something untoward breaking out, rather than a pure, altruistic hope for the most fluid footballing spectacle on the planet, but whatever these two teams have been through in recent times, plenty of eyes will be trained on a oblong patch of grass in Govan as kick-off approaches. 

“I think there always will be interest,” said Rodgers, as he prepared to take a team into this match for the seventh time. “You can’t say there isn’t. I have been over the world and whatever players I have worked with, wherever I’ve been in the Premier League, when they know there is a Rangers-Celtic or Celtic-Rangers game on, the boys are glued to it. 

“So I have been there – at Chelsea, Swansea, Liverpool. I have been in enough canteens – where, if the game is on, they are watching it. Where they know the intensity and they think ‘bloody hell, what type of game that must be to play in’. 

“What the wider perception of it is, I am not sure. The bigger leagues will always get the focus, I think we all know that. But there are also some great clubs, huge clubs outside of that who might not have the financial clout of some of these teams. In terms of history and prestige there are not too many bigger and better than here.”

If this fixture didn’t retain such global appeal, Rodgers would hardly have been inundated with the unanimous praise bestowed upon him from the club’s global diaspora in the wake of last year’s record-setting 5-1 victory at Ibrox in April. All in all, with 16 goals scored, four conceded, five wins and one draw, this was a fairly halcyon season in this fixture.

“Absolutely it is box office, no question,” the Northern Irishman added.

“If there is a Celtic-Rangers, Rangers-Celtic game on, people throughout the world will want to hear about it. That is why if you do well, you hear the stories coming in from America, Australia, it is a worldwide game. “

“Everyone knows about this fixture. You only need to have seen it to sense it and there’s been enough stories over the years of this game. It’s a special fixture and no matter what people will say – or write – it’s a really special game that’s recognised worldwide.  The media do a very good job of making it interesting and that always helps!” 

In that regard, part of the enduring attraction of these matches – six of them last season or not – is the combustible nature of them. But any worldwide viewers who tuned in looking for that kind of fare last season would have been disappointed. In six matches last term, Celtic racked up just 16 bookings, or an average of 2.666. While he recognises the dangers of one moment of madness, Rodgers’ taps the table for good luck when it is pointed out how adept his team have proved thus far in treading that fine line between aggressively contesting the ball and keeping 

11 men on the field, no more so than their captain Scott Brown. 

“That is important,” said Rodgers. “I’m proud of the tactical discipline of the team but also the discipline in these games. You have to be aggressive, of course. So we tackle, we fight but you always have to keep control. 

“You go into these games and you know how important they are to everyone but the only way you can win them is to play well and play your game. I always like my team, no matter how aggressive and how great the pressure is, to be a sporting team and above board.”

One line of inquiry in that regard was whether the Parkhead side might be tempted to play up the Latin temperament of some of Rangers’ new recruits, not least striker Alfredo Morelos, who has scored eight goals since his summer arrival from HJK Helsinki but required the benefit of the doubt in the 2-2 draw against Partick Thistle on Friday night when he appeared to kick Jordan Turnbull. 

Pedro Caixinha said yesterday that he already knew that Celtic would try to provoke the player, but Rodgers was having none of that yesterday. 

“It is not really something we concentrate on,” he said. “He is a young boy who has come into the country and started his campaign well. He’s got some goals and wants to score and sometimes when you are young you can get a wee bit fired up, but we concentrate on our own work.”