SCOTTISH football has endured more than its fair share of false dawns over the years but perhaps Rangers’ Scottish Cup semi-final victory over Celtic last season was the biggest red herring of the lot. A gap between the teams that many thought resembled more a chasm of Grand Canyon proportions was somehow eliminated over 120 minutes and then penalties at Hampden last April.
How had this happened? Did it mean Rangers were going to win promotion and immediately challenge Celtic’s supremacy at the top of the Premiership? Were we about to usher in a return to the days prior to Rangers’ insolvency when the two Glasgow heavyweights would slug it out toe to toe, one enjoying a period of supremacy and then the other coming back at them? Unlikely as it had seemed beforehand, Rangers’ performance against a timid Celtic side that day had seemingly put that back on the table.
History, though, now tells it differently. All that result did was rouse the ire of Celtic’s power-brokers. Unwilling to stomach the possibility of Celtic and Rangers been viewed once more as equals, Celtic upgraded. A better calibre of manager was appointed in Brendan Rodgers who in turn brought in better players while simultaneously bringing out improvements in those who had been under-performing under his predecessor Ronny Deila. Like two boy racers revving their engines at the traffic lights, Celtic sped off into the distance as soon as it turned green. Rangers stalled.
Scotland’s top division this year, then, resembles every other season since Rangers’ financial collapse apart from the fact the Ibrox side are back in there but among the pack rather than as title challengers. The era of the duopoly is over - for the foreseeable future at least. Celtic will win the championship this year by more than 30 points and could collect a treble along the way.
Barring Rangers (or someone else) being taken over by oil-rich oligarchs or energy drink moguls, this is how it is going to be from now on in. The mere mention of 10-in-a-row tends to get both halves of Glasgow frothing at the mouth but that should hardly be the extent of Celtic’s ambition given they were already halfway there before Rodgers took over. It is barely worth even trying to speculate how long this period of domination could go on for.
Celtic fans are unlikely to complain. Certainly not in the short-term. Those old enough to remember the grim times their club endured throughout the 1990s will be happy to see the shoe on the other foot. Now they are watching a team winning every week and often in style, too. Rodgers’ ability to repeatedly revitalise underperforming or forgotten figures –Dedryck Boyata is the latest example – is now starting to appear like some kind of witchcraft. With the return of Champions League football, a possible domestic clean sweep, and Rangers under their heel, there is plenty for Celtic supporters to be happy about.
Rodgers, too, still seems focused and enjoying the freshness of it all. A treble would bring him immediately alongside Jock Stein and Martin O’Neill in the pantheon of Celtic’s managerial greats, while the prospect of another half-season - at least - of Champions League football will likely sustain him throughout the rest of the year.
Domestically, though, the novelty may soon wear off, especially if Celtic scoop the lot in his first season and possibly without losing a meaningful game. Rodgers, after all, was not enticed north after years in the Premier League by the prospect of regular meetings with Ross County or Hamilton Accies. European football will offer a welcome distraction but the week-to-week challenges may start to become more like domestic chores.
Similarly, it does Scottish football as a whole no good to have no serious competition for its main prize year after year. A similar picture has emerged in Italy where Juventus are pushing for a sixth successive title, and in Germany and France where Bayern Munich and PSG respectively are going for five-in-a-row.
In each of those leagues, however, there is at least the prospect of someone emerging to push the defending champions all the way. Roma, Napoli, and the two Milan clubs begin each season with Serie A aspirations, RB Leipzig have joined traditional heavyweights like Borussia Dortmund and Bayer Leverkusen at the sharp end of the Bundesliga, while either Monaco or Nice could depose PSG this year.
Here in Scotland, Aberdeen made a decent stab of it in the previous two seasons but few outside their most optimistic of supporters genuinely thought they would beat Celtic to the title. Now with Rodgers in charge, the gulf between the Parkhead side and the rest has become virtually unbridgeable.
A situation where they win the Scottish title by a country mile every year for the next decade or longer cannot be considered healthy for the game or satisfying for the club. It is why for their own sake and for the rest, Celtic must pursue other options. If the road to English football is likely to be closed off for the immediate future, other possibilities should be pursued, most likely a place at the table of an expanded European league. That may seem drastic but the alternative of the status quo for the next decade or so does neither Celtic nor Scottish football any good in the long run.
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