Todd Cantwell wasn’t in the mood to share at Hampden. But the Rangers ace hopes it will be cups and not drinking bottles that his side are hogging next year.
The new Ibrox playmaker found himself at the centre of a social media storm following last month’s Scottish Cup semi-final when a clip of him refusing to allow bemused Celtic ace Reo Hatate a swig from his side’s water bottles went viral. Record Sport columnist Chris Sutton was among those quick to troll the former Norwich star after the bizarre watergate row but Cantwell reckons he was only treating his Hoops opponent the way he’d expect to be dealt with by the Celtic squad.
That incident wasn’t his only run in with the Parkhead players at Hampden, with the 25-year-old also involved in a full and frank exchange of views with Hoops skipper Callum McGregor at the final whistle. Cantwell knows there’s not much point in him mouthing off now after three straight defeats to their bitter rivals.
But he hopes to have plenty more to say next year. “Listen, I feel like you can’t really breathe wrongly up here without it making the media,” he said when asked about the Hatate bottle incident.
"The way I look at it, if we had a player down or they had a player down and the physio had come on and I had gone over to McGregor and asked for a drink of water, I can imagine what he would have said to me. I think I was quite polite to be honest.
“Listen, it is a healthy rivalry. They have come out on top this year so I am in a position where I can’t really speak too much.
“I respect what they have done but, listen, next year that is where we want to be. We want to be up there and I was just reminding [McGregor] that we are on our way.”
Cantwell’s performances in the two derby defeats last month were about the only small positive the Ibrox faithful were able to take as their side once again proved incapable of matching Ange Postecoglou’s rampant Treble-chasers. Although unable to direct Gers to a win, his spiky defiance in the face of his side’s vanquishers went down well with a Rangers support who have now gone a year without witnessing a win against their bitter foes.
Cantwell knows those results will sting the punters but insists they hurt him just as much. “It’s important that we give something to the fans who have been with us all season,” he said ahead of today’s lunchtime clash.
“It’s been a difficult campaign and I think they deserve a good performance. I don’t think at Rangers Football Club we should gauge it on being how far we think we are.
“The important thing is that we continue to build in the right direction. It’s no secret that we’re going through a bit of a rebuild.
“Once we get to the stage where everyone is starting to get the game plan and understanding it, I think you’ll see us get closer and hopefully start to become the dominant side.
“I’ve enjoyed the derbies but I haven’t enjoyed the results. I can’t stand here and say it’s been a get experience and all the rest. I’m here to win games and that’s what’s expected at Rangers.
“I just think the fans can see whether you care or not. They’re not naive. They can see it. You can say loads of things in the media before a game. You can say whatever you like really.
“If they don’t see it, they can’t believe it so for me it’s just actioning what I feel. [The defeats] hurt. But it hurts me just as much knowing how much hurt it’s caused a lot of other people.
“We are going through a rebuilding process at the moment. The manager, to my understanding, it a little bit different to the manager who was here prior and he wants to do things differently - and that can never happen overnight.
“I think the process to get us to be the team he wants us to be is definitely underway. Could a win this weekend strike a psychological blow? Yeah, you could argue that it could put a bit of doubt into their mind.
"You could also argue that it makes them hungrier. Listen, we have got to concentrate on ourselves as Rangers Football Club and I think it is important that we do that.”
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