LORENZO AMORUSO has warned Celtic that every team in Scotland will be out to stop the Hoops clinching ten-in-a-row.
The Rangers hero was part of the Ibrox squad who fell short of ten successive titles in the 1997/98 season.
And recalling that disappointment, Amoruso claims every team in the league was out to stop the Gers from making history.
He told the Daily Record: "It was my first season in Glasgow and one of the first things I realised was how badly every other team wanted to beat us.
"It seemed very obvious to me they tried harder against Rangers than any other team.
"Everyone wanted to beat the big guys and Rangers are always the big guys.
"But that particular season I felt everyone was trying even harder than normal.
"I didn't play much of the season because I was injured from the start. But I could see it with my own eyes.
"They gave everything against Rangers, more than they gave against Celtic.
"Beating the team that is trying to get to 10 in a row is complicated - it's not easy to achieve. But that's problem Celtic now face. The same problem we had back then.
"When you play against nine-in-a-row champions it is normal for any player, if he is ambitious, to want to show them, 'There is no life for you here today!'.
"You want to beat them and make a piece of history. Maybe for a week, maybe for two weeks.
"But if you beat Celtic next season then everyone will have a piece of history. That's the way it is.
"Even for the managers, the target is obvious. Everyone is working for their own future and if they do well with their own teams, beating Celtic or Rangers, their name and reputation gets bigger.
"Maybe they have ambitions to coach at Rangers or Celtic one day. If they have that kind of mentality then a harder life is waiting for Celtic at the beginning of next season."
On Rangers’ collapse following the Scottish football winter break, Amoruso added: "These lessons I learned should be the same for today's players.
"Listen, anyone can kick a f****** ball. Anyone.
"But to be a champion you need to focus and concentration all the time, every day, against everyone. That's what makes the perfect Rangers players.
"In Italy they used to say to me, 'it is easy to play over there in Scotland - there are only two teams'.
"But they didn't understand that second place in Scotland is failure. The pressure is on to be a winner every week and that's not easy.
"Players don't realise what it is like when they sign for Rangers or Celtic.
"They don't understand that the only thing that matters is winning.
"You can be the best player in the country but if you don't win the f****** league then you are a failure. That's it, nothing else."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel