iT was a strange little scene deep in the bowels of Parkhead last Wednesday night.

Clattering away on laptops as deadlines reared up after Celtic's League Cup defeat of Hearts, a room full of reporters paused to find out the quarter-final draw. The news unfolded not via the television in the corner of the room, nor on radio, nor even via Twitter, but from the BBC's venerable reporter, Alasdair Lamont, who had a phone to his ear and was slowly relaying the names out loud. And when he said "Celtic" and then paused, and then "Partick Thistle" there was an audible groan of disappointment in the room. Most of the hacks immediately returned to their work.

If ever confirmation was required that the football media, at least, is ready for a Celtic-Rangers game, there it was. The reaction would not have been like that a year or so ago. It is now 30 months since the Old Firm last played each other. Let there be no mistake, for about a year to 18 months much of the country was glad to see the back of that fixture, or at least glad to get a prolonged breather from it.

Such was the poisonous brew of anger, grievance and recriminations from Rangers' implosion and exile into the lower divisions it was a relief that they could not meet in league games and that Rangers were not good enough to last very long in the cups. Now there's a high chance of them meeting in the opening weeks of 2015 if they both make it into the semi-finals of this League Cup, although you would expect Celtic to find things far easier in their quarter-final against Partick Thistle than Rangers will against St Johnstone.

The media craves a Celtic-Rangers game not because we are all Rangers supporters who desperately crave the restoration of their status (sorry to disappoint, internet bampots) but because controversy, tension, drama and excitement are meat and drink to those who fill television and radio airtime, website space and newspaper column inches. And there is still nothing in Scottish football which hooks a vast audience like an Old Firm clash.

Eventually the whole ugly pantomime will be kicked into life again. They will meet again, probably within a year at most. There will be a chorus line asserting that there is no Old Firm, that there cannot be because Rangers "died" in 2012. Will that dogmatic argument lose any of its insistence once the pair of them do meet and the fixture displays all of its previous heat, noise and toxicity? No, probably not.

There is an interesting argument over whether the Old Firm exists. It isn't about whether Rangers are dead but about how much life and co-operation there is between the two clubs these days.

The phrase "Old Firm" was coined 111 years ago and it was never intended as a compliment.

It appeared in a newspaper cartoon along with a cynical reference to "Rangers, Celtic Ltd", alluding to how the supposed rivals were content to privately work in cahoots to exploit their shared commercial appeal. It was a collaborative relationship which continued for a century. Lines of communication were always open between Ibrox and Parkhead.

Those joint shirt sponsorship agreements with CR Smith, NTL, Carling and Tennent's, and those shared positions on SPL TV, Setanta and other broadcasting rights deals, didn't happen by accident.

When Celtic were being pressed by supporters to break commercial ties with Rangers the board said adopting that position would "seriously limit the number of potential sponsors available and hinder the company unnecessarily in any sponsorship negotiations that did take place".

But now? What ties are there between Celtic and Rangers now? The "Old Firm Alliance" youth project has done tremendous community work in Glasgow since 2005. But for three years the clubs have been in different leagues on the pitch and, increasingly, in an economic sense too. After 14 years of joint-shirt sponsorship deals Celtic now have Magners Irish Cider on their chests and Rangers the online gambling firm 32Red.

Naturally there are some at both clubs who have friendships with those on the other side but men like John Greig and Sandy Jardine, hugely respected around Celtic, are no longer around Rangers. It is hard to believe Ally McCoist and Ronny Deila can have spent time together, or that Peter Lawwell has Graham Wallace or the Easdales on speed dial. Lawwell and Martin Bain used to have a solid working relationship.

Celtic and Rangers will get back into bed eventually. What always draws the pair of them together is their vast number of supporters. That creates economies of scale and what Lawwell calls "fundamentals" which are entirely different from all other clubs in Scotland. In time, when Rangers return as a credible force in the top division, shared interests will see the two clubs voting together and perhaps even re-entering joint commercial deals (many potential sponsors refuse to back one club and not the other, because of the probable consequences that would have in lost business). Of course, all of this maybe wrongly assumes that Rangers won't suffer a second financial collapse.

At Celtic's annual meeting last year Lawwell drew a distinction between the current Rangers and the old entity by saying: "Rory Bremner can pretend to be Tony Blair . . ." It was a line that got him a laugh. For now, we can ask questions about what "the Old Firm" really means too.