WHAT a missed opportunity for Celtic.
It was all there for them as well. A packed stadium, a beautiful Sunday afternoon, a team brimming with confidence and yet the blew it.
Celtic might never get a better chance of equalling or even beating their record 7-1 win over Rangers. In saying that, it was probably asking too much. I mean, where were this Rangers team going to find a goal?
When it got to five, with still a fair bit of the second half to go, I fully expected Celtic to score at least another two goals. That’s how dominant they were..
That they didn’t was down to a couple of good saves from Jak Alnwick and some poor decision-making in the final third, which was down in part to the Celtic players finding it all a bit too easy for them.
So, they had to settle for the club’s biggest league win in an Old Firm game since 1895. Oh, and a seventh league title in a row. As consolations go, this one was manufactured by a certain drinks company.
Celtic brilliantly sealed the title. Well done, Brendan Rodgers. He has taken the entire club to a new level and, with all due respect to Motherwell, it’s nigh-on impossible to see the Parkhead men not winning a successive treble.
And if a challenge does come, it’s likely to be from the North East or Leith. Maybe even Kilmarnock if Steve Clarke stays and continues to do his excellent work.
Someone needs to turn Rangers off, leave them for ten seconds, and then switch them back on again. Huge changes are needed at Ibrox or Celtic will continue to use their old friends as target practice as they have all this season.
If Steven Gerrard does become the next Rangers manager, and maybe yesterday put him off, then he will need to perform a miracle that would make what happened in Istanbul look like a simple card trick.
Piling on the Agony. That was a banner, with Scott Brown wearing sunglasses, promised Rangers. And the Celtic players delivered and will keep delivering unless the right man to stop Celtic is a famous former footballer whose coaching record stretches to a season with an under-18 team.
Celtic won a game, the league, their seventh in a row, stretched their unbeaten record in this fixture to eleven games. And at times in this game it like shooty-in, such was the dominance of Rodgers’s side.
So, congratulations must go to Celtic manager, his coaching staff and the players for giving their supporters so many wonderful memories with yesterday perhaps being the best yet.
Odsonne Edouard was preferred to Leigh Griffiths and was outstanding. He scored two goals and ran that excuse for a Rangers defence ragged.
Tom Rogic, utterly magic for an hour, scored in his fourth successive derby in the Premiership, James Forrest got his first goal in the fixture, Scott Brown was magnificent, Kieran Tierney outstanding and, for me, best of all was Callum McGregor.
Celtic humiliated Rangers and their fans. Make no mistake about it. This wasn’t just a defeat. This was bullying.
The thought did occur, as the home support held aloft their scarves in unison minutes before the team came out, that the next time Gerrard will hear You’ll Never Walk Alone will be at Celtic Park
If, and it now seems likely, this icon of English football cut his managerial teeth then there is an argument to be made that he could hardly be choosing a more difficult job.
Read more: Tam McManus: Appointing Steven Gerrard would not be a huge gamble for Rangers
Nobody knows whether Gerrard is the right man, although I personally see it as a massive risk and even if the man from Anfield is up to the task, with the best will in the world, I’m not sure what Bob Paisley could do with this Rangers squad.
The club is a mess from top to bottom, that much is clear, and on the pitch, this was as bad a Rangers performance as I have seen. Ever. They only got away with not losing by a record defeat through Celtic not being that bothered about reaching seven.
This was Celtic’s bench: Bain, Hendry, Simunovic, Roberts, Griffiths, Sinclair and Kouassi. Every single one of them would walk into the Rangers team. As would Stuart Armstrong, Moussa Dembele, Jonny Hayes, Nir Bitton and a probably an academy kid or two.
Celtic’s third goal summed up the day and situation at large. Forrest ran past four Rangers players on his way to scoring and not one of them put in as much as a challenge.
In the resultant celebrations, Mikael Lustig bumped into a policeman, knocked off his hat and put it on. The copper saw the funny side. Although had the officer been more on his game, he would have arrested eleven boys in blue for stealing their wages.
Everything about Murty has been said. Same with Dave King and his board. But what about the players.
If well paid professional footballers don’t win 50/50s or even tackles in their favour, if they allow opponents to run past them, if they can’t pass, shoot or even mark a man, win a header - you know, like play football, then this is what happens.
If Gerrard is the next manager, he needs to be appointed this week. Get him in for the next three games so he can get a feel for the place, and it would also relieve Murty of this living hell
The Celtic supporters will have sung, dance, hugged and drank late into the night with a care in the world. Somewhere in Glasgow, the Rangers Player of the Year dinner took place. There would have been as atmospheric as an Amish funeral.
This is Celtic’s time, and even Gerrard the player could do nothing to stop them.
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