THE football life of Kenny Matheson Dalglish is wrapped in legend, imbued in myth and gilded with everything the club game has to offer, from doubles on both sides of the Border to a winner in a European Cup final.

 

It all started in Glasgow 63 years ago for a man who has strong claims to be the best Scottish player ever. His first significant football step, though, was taken on an August day in 1971.

"Billy McNeill asked me to take a penalty on my debut. It wasn't a good idea,'' he said of the Old Firm League Cup tie at Ibrox. "The trainer came on with suppositories, just to keep it in. I will get nervous now when I think about it. But if you're born in the city, you know the magnitude of the game. To be involved in it and for him to say 'you take it' ..."

His voice drifts off, without recording that the ball hit the back of the net to prompt a 2-0 victory for Celtic. Dalglish was to score another 111 goals for the club but that spot kick, an amalgam of mental strength and flawless technique, was to provide an early, enduring mark of the man.

Dalglish was tough as well as talented. He became Liverpool's best ever player, accumulated102 caps for Scotland and was a highly successful manager in his first spell at Anfield.

His tenure as Celtic manager was brief and unhappy but this rise to the very top of the game allows him a panoramic view of the realities of football on both side of the Border.

He is blunt in his summations. Ronny Deila, he believes, will remain Celtic manager even if Rangers win the League Cup semi-final on Sunday.

"I just don't see if Celtic were to lose the game that it would be the end of his career at the club," he said. "'I don't know how they would recover - I'm not a psychic - but I don't see how it would be the end of a manager's career if he goes out of the League Cup.''

He accepted, though, that the disparity between the clubs ''had never been like this before''.

He said: "There may not have been bookmakers there to judge the odds but certainly since the clubs were formed there's never been this gulf."

Dalglish, speaking at an event to promote online betting company 666 Bet, would not concede Celtic would win comfortably, despite odds of 7-1.

"If you look at the weekend results in the FA Cup you'll get a wee bit of a shock. That may give Rangers a bit of encouragement but it may also send a message out to Celtic that it doesn't matter what your standing is, on any particular day it's about what happens. It's a good message for both clubs," he said.

Similarly, he was dismissive of the theory that the strain was exclusively on Celtic.

"If you were manager of Rangers, and your team was going out to play an Old Firm game, do you not think there's any pressure on it? I wouldn't want to go out on the pitch if I thought that. Of course, there's pressure on you," he said.

Dalglish, who had a six-year spell of Old Firm clashes before signing for Liverpool in August 1977, said: "You're going out to represent your club in the biggest game they have. Why is there no pressure? I don't go along with the idea the so-called underdogs in any game have nothing to lose. You only have nothing to lose if you don't care. As long as you take pride in yourself you have something to lose.''

The spoils of victory for Rangers, though, "might go a long way to erasing a few of the bad memories they've had over the last three years".

He added: "But, longer term, the quicker they get back in the Premiership the better it is for Rangers as a football club."

So this might not be the most crucial game for Rangers this season?

"Well, it is the most crucial game because it is the next one and it is an Old Firm game," he said. "But if you look at it objectively, maybe no, but you're not thinking objectively before going into that game."

Dalglish, with a lifetime's experience in football, was not convinced of the uniqueness of the Old Firm game as a derby.

"They're all the same. If you're at Raith Rovers playing Dunfermline is a massive game," he said. "Every derby is really important and the biggest derby is the one you're involved in and if you don't go into it thinking like that there's no point in running out."

This may come as a surprise to some but it is the reality of a constant winner.

His next sentiment, though, would brook no argument among either set of supporters.

"Victory is the most important thing for either side. It doesn't matter how many and it doesn't even matter how."