In our latest instalment of wishful-thinking diaries, we delve into what former Ibrox chairman, Dave King, proclaimed about Celtic in 2018.
With Celtic currently on track to achieve a record turnover in its celebrated history, this is a remarkable achievement given the pandemic’s adverse effects just a few years ago. [Read More Here]
Amidst this, it’s worth revisiting King’s brash assertion that Rangers needed only one league title to dismantle the Hoops. Without requiring two or three title wins, King claimed that a single victory would bring Celtic’s downfall and pave the way for a new era of success for The Rangers. However, with no supporters, no football soul, and a compromised league competition, they eventually won the title King spoke of. So, how did his ill-considered comments hold up?
“We appoint a manager who can win games, with more resources, and we take one league title way from Celtic. We only need one league title, we don’t need two or three. We need one. Once we take one away, it’s like a pack of cards.” King told SunSport back in 2018.
“Celtic’s cost structure is more like we were ten years ago.
“We needed Champions League football, and if we went into the Europa League we were in trouble because the cost structure was so high.
“Take that away for one season and it will change the numbers on the Celtic side very quickly.
“Celtic have the comfort levels we once had of knowing we were going to get Champions League money.
“We have to take that away from them”
Three years after we were locked down, two years after a title was won behind closed doors and we can conclusively say, Dave King has was categorically wrong.
His comments didn’t even track at the time if the media did their job and questioned his comments rather than just printing them. Celtic had gone spells outside the Champions League; Brendan Rodgers’ first two seasons were out of the norm when we did qualify for the competition.
After fans flooded back into stadiums, Celtic found themselves in a tough spot, having to rebuild with a new manager and watching as their star players exited the club. Despite these setbacks, the club went on to capture the league title at the first time of asking.
When Celtic appointed Ange Postecoglou, many of their supporters and pundits, including Ally McCoist, ridiculed the decision. It didn’t take much for this misplaced confidence to emerge at Ibrox. However, Rangers fans quickly became overconfident, believing that their team was on the verge of overtaking Celtic as Scotland’s top club rather than merely paying the mantle lip service.
Instead, they watched on as Ange’s rebuild season and free hit turned into a double-winning campaign. But we thought this whole thing was like a house of cards.
At the beginning of the current 22/23 season, the same kind of nonsense arose about overthrowing Celtic. Halfway through the season, they have a new manager who keeps complaining that Celtic spend money on transfers! It’s quite remarkable to watch the delusional conjecture slowly dissipate as reality takes hold.
Celtic has been run very well for a long time, and to think anything else is to be one of our ‘wishful thinkers’.
Read our previous wishful thinker.
