Martin O''Donnel är en celticsupporter som skriver både väl och informativt om sakernas tillstånd - utifrån en celticsupporters perspektiv. Här följer hans funderingar över lördagens s k motståndare.

November 26th, 2000 was not a good day for Celtic because we lost heavily away to Rangers at Ibrox. The 5-1 defeat soured what had been up to that point a very good start to the season with a 6-2 drubbing of Rangers in a memorable afternoon which announced that Martin O'Neill meant business.The Celtic team of that day features four very important absences that day namely Paul Lambert, Neil Lennon and of course John Hartson. Three of the aforementioned had yet not signed and couldn't have played whereas Lambert was unable to play. It should also be pointed out that Alan Thompson was sent off in his first game at Ibrox. The Martin O'Neill team that we now see was clearly still in its development stage. However, all of the talk was about the signing of Tore Andre Flo the man who cost Rangers an incredible £12 million. For every £6 million Celtic spent on the likes of Chris Sutton, Rangers were prepared to double it. As it happened, Flo actually managed to score that day which justified the huge sum in many eyes. Many Celtic supporters exiting Ibrox that day, would have been sickened not just about the result but the manner in which Rangers seemed able to pluck huge sums of money out of the air to sign 'top stars'. They also seemed to have stopped Martin O'Neill in his tracks and confront the ordinary Celtic supporter with the fact that he would be forever consigned to second best when it came to money and quality signings. There was also something in the signing of Flo which would have appealed to the showmanship of David Murray. Hugh Adam a former Rangers director alluded to Murray's madness recently in which he said that Murray was always open to crazy stunts as he loved playing to the gallery. The Scottish press too insisted that the Rangers performance that afternoon showed in a very public way, that Rangers were a better footballing team and that the 6-2 result at Celtic Park was a emporary aberration.
They insisted too that the 5-1 'massacre' of Celtic would provide the perfect springboard from which Rangers would overtake Celtic that season. After all, hadn't Rangers just signed a top class striker in the shape of Tore Andre Flo?

As it turned out, Celtic won the treble that year and won the league with consummate ease. Dick Advocaat was finished and the rest is history.

As we prepare for yet another duel with Rangers we see too that on the eve of this fixture they have made a new signing. However, far from spending £12 million on a foreign import they have gone for a player from a Scottish team which is officially bankrupt. They initially offered the princely sum of £50.000 to secure the services of Scottish legend Gavin Rae.(This sum might have just about paid for 10 ten days of Flo's wages three years ago.) Rangers and Dundee were then involved in an unseemly row arguing over relatively tiny amounts of money for a third rate player. This gave an indication just far Rangers had fallen in three years. Like a starving vulture picking over a dying corpse Rangers fought for the scraps. But Rae was just the latest addition from Dundee after having signed Khizanivilis for nothing despite the stricken club's protestations. It is a sign of their present plight that Rangers are such a rush to sign a man of Rae's calibre to fill the gaps. Incidentally, Rae might actually be unfit to play on Saturday as he is carrying a hamstring!

Rangers journey from Tore Andre Flo to Gavin Rae serves as a metaphor for what has happened to all Scottish clubs in the last three years with the honourable exception of Celtic. Spending absurd sums of money for second rate players and putting their very existence into peril in the process. It was with some amusement that I read in this morning's "Glasgow Herald' of Alex McLeish's new strategy. Instead of signing expensive foreign players, McLeish now talks of "getting back our Scottish identity'. Now, I find that a most peculiar assertion given the fact that Rangers had made Europe the benchmark and had a very voluble disdain for Scotland and all things Scottish. However, let's not be uncharitable in the season of goodwill and instead let's thank Rangers for their backhanded compliment. They tried to play what they considered was 'skilful football' couldn't compete and now are going to play what they consider is the Celtic and European way. Alternatively, we could suggest far more plausibly that the reason Rangers are signing Gavin Rae and co has nothing to do with grand future strategies but rather that they are totally brassic, with not a penny to their name. I mentioned the composition of the defeated Celtic side in the 5-1 game but perhaps of far more interest is just exactly who played for Rangers three years ago? Well, from the eleven players who started that game just one remains. Stefan Klos. That for me is the most salutary point. Amoruso, Ferguson, Numan and McCann just left this past summer as they couldn't afford to pay them.

The difference between the two teams is that Celtic has dumped its surplus players from that game and brought in genuine quality in the shape of Lennon, Hartson, Balde and Miller. On Saturday you will see that continuity as a team of seasoned professionals who have played together will dismantle a team of cheap, second rate has beens. Tore Andre Flo to Gavin Rae in three short seasons ......... it just about says it all.

Martin O''Donnel