Rangers are trophyless for the season and have won only a single title in the last 12 years – but they go into the summer break on a high.
Celtic have taken 11 of the last 12 league titles and stand 90 minutes from a world record-breaking eighth Treble. But they are approaching Saturday’s Scottish Cup Final with Inverness in an obvious state of nervous anxiety. The connection between the clubs, and the explanation for the personality change being undergone by the public at large, is the thought of Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou leaving Glasgow for London and taking up the managerial vacancy at Spurs.
For some, this possibility equates with the guarantee of a shift in the balance of power at the top of the Premiership. Mainly those who believe that Rangers manager Michael Beale will be the beneficiary of his Celtic counterpart leaving town. Not so much a vote of confidence in Beale as an admission his prospects of success would be enhanced if Ange would simply go away.
What we need now – and what this story has clearly lacked so far– is clarity. Speculation becomes a growth industry at times like these and takes the place of hard facts being made available for inspection.
Ange could have ended all uncertainty at Friday’s press conference – but he danced around the subject. He acknowledged speculation existed concerning his immediate future without dispelling it once and for all.
This is not to say he was being evasive or knows more than he’s letting on. He might be waiting for a telephone call from an interested party or perhaps the interest in him has been exaggerated.
Either way, he’s not being held hostage at Celtic Park and handcuffed to a radiator in between matches. He’s a free man able to exercise free will if anything concrete in nature should come up. In the meantime, the cup final now has to become a major source of distraction – and that’s the way it should be under the circumstances.
Incredibly, Celtic have, by going three games without a win before Saturday's rout of Aberdeen, managed to turn a walkover of a cup final into a serious topic of discussion. There are even concerned Celtic supporters who wonder if Postecoglou’s team might be up that creek with the rude first name ahead of Hampden.
If Ange is looking for ways before then to incentivise his disoriented team, and pacify the fan base, then he could try this one on for size. If Celtic should lose against the Championship side it would be the biggest humiliation ever suffered in the club’s 135-year history. Bar none.
An indelible black mark on the name of every player and member of the management team involved in a fiasco that would never be able to be lived down – unless Postecoglou won the Champions League.
How could it be any other way? You could throw any cup final lost by Celtic at me and I would give you reasons why it would pale into insignificance compared with the loss of this one. Go all the way back to Partick Thistle winning the League Cup Final 4-1 in 1971 and I’d say the teams were at least in the same division.
Raith Rovers’ League Cup Final win in 1994? Celtic had just beaten financial ruination and closure and Tommy Burns was the manager who had been left holding a baby with colic.
This is a mismatch, or ought to be – unless you fall so far from your professional standards and then you deserve all you get. Postecoglou’s players would be ridiculed for the rest of their careers if they lost because they were part of a multi-million pound side that lost to a team living on the equivalent of income support.
Caley Thistle’s joy at making the final was, don’t forget, partly based on the extra revenue going towards the settlement of debt.
The scale of what Celtic in general, and Postecoglou in particular, would lose in terms of prestige would be astronomical.
It would be a personal hammer blow to the manager if he missed out on joining Jock Stein, Martin O’Neill, Brendan Rodgers and Neil Lennon in the pantheon of greats to have won a Treble with Celtic.
Failing to achieve a world record-equalling eighth domestic Treble because they lost to a lower-league team would defy belief and make Celtic a laughing stock. There should be no circumstances imaginable that are able to be used to explain a loss to Inverness Caley Thistle.
Billy Dodds’ side finished in the bottom half of the Championship and won’t have played a competitive game of football for a calendar month by the time they get to Hampden.
ScotRail have at least shown an open mind about the whole thing. They’ve programmed in a 45-minute delay to the departure of the scheduled 9pm Football Special from Glasgow to Inverness next Saturday night in case extra-time and penalty kicks are needed at Hampden.
But if there is a change to the advertised service it will be absolute proof that Celtic have well and truly come off the rails. ‘Mind the gap’ should be the more appropriate message.
Celtic are cash rich and living the dream of domestic domination. There are cup shocks then there are cataclysmic cock-ups. You should want to avoid the second one if you’re Ange.
How would that look when your name’s being mentioned as being favourite to become the next manager of Spurs? I’d like to see, and hear, Tottenham’s chief executive Daniel Levy welcome to the club the new manager whose last game in Scotland was to lose to a team from the rural communities of Scotland in the national cup final.
Harry Kane phones an Uber at that point. Ange’s credibility is at stake next week – but that’s to Celtic’s advantage. What happens after that with regard to the manager is out of their hands.
To be fair, he warned the Celtic supporters not to fall in love with people – because it is the nature of football that hearts can be broken when a relationship ends. Does he need to draw a diagram?
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