Over the last decade Celtic couldn’t have asked for an easier run at things but since rampant Rangers have turned up the pressure their collapse has been monumental.
Parkhead fans might hold on to hope that their side will be in a prosperous position again next season but it’ll take a lot to stop a Steven Gerrard led Rangers intent on more success.
But whilst the title celebrations continue at Ibrox, the current sounds coming out of Celtic Park cut a rather more sombre tone; 10IAR’s demise has been like a death in the family.
We knew they’d take 55 bad – just not this bad.
Ahead of the “Glasgow Derby” this weekend, Celtic have been Sevcoing their way back into the hearts and minds of a support truly defeated by years of self-indulgence and arrogance.
They were probably the only ones who didn’t see this coming, sleeping off all the jelly and ice cream.
Celtic’s cycle has ended – as evidenced by the dramatic change of background and playing staff which is about to commence come May – and Rangers’ is only just coming into its peak.
The minor details of course are important – and it would’ve taken a monumental effort to stop this Rangers wrecking machine this season – but we were always going to make a fist of it.
Celtic’s pathetic final 20 minutes against Dundee United at Tannadice little over a week ago symbolises how unwilling – and incapable – this team were to stop it.
The league title on the line, Celtic downed tools, maybe because the threat of Rangers winning it a fortnight later in Parkhead was more intimidating than us winning it at Tannadice.
Now – in the style of the famous Limmy sketch of a forlorn father screaming to the street that Rangers have turned the weans against them – Celtic bellow salty new club patter into the Twitter vacuum with all the class of a burst pair of green Adidas sambas.
No one cares what Celtic call the Old Firm – even if their ownership of the term’s trademark suggests they do – but it’s the insistence, the bitter dig, the not half of anything we aren’t hurting contemptuousness of their public communications since the Gers secured the league crown which is so indulgently sweet to Rangers fans.
It’s the placing of Glasgow Derby anywhere they can and the staunch defiance that they have some moral high ground over Rangers off the park, this seemingly enough to cope with the fact they’ve been pumped with ruthless vigour on it.
Not that I particularly care how they view Rangers’ celebrations – Celtic’s party line of rioting mid-pandemic = ok, celebrating = bad is as predictable as it is tiresome.
But it’s just the sheer needlessness of it all which is so satisfying to watch.
Their commentators too – influencers, journalists or fans in places of high authority – have also not taken the news well, Rangers’ title celebrations ISIS-like according to one former SPL chief.
How can something so salty, taste so goddam sweet?
It’s all designed to get a rise out of a group of supporters who apparently mean nothing, who are in no way connected to them, and who they are infinitely better than.
Instead, it’s having the opposite effect, Rangers fans in genuine disbelief of the continuing meltdown coming from across the city, Paul the Tim apparently being handed admin status on their Twitter account.
If you’re a Rangers fan biting to any of this, then do yourself a favour, don’t. Point at it and laugh instead.
And it’s not done yet.
That Rangers ruthlessness that has defined a season is set to be tested at Celtic Park – poetically the first ground the Gers will march into as Champions after a decade off the throne.
If you’ve been enjoying laughing at them off the park, just wait until this team of bottlers get laughed off of their own pitch by the Champions of Scotland this weekend.
Rangers fans have enjoyed Celtic’s tweeting as of late and here’s a selection of reactions regarding their use of the term Glasgow Derby.
