Some of us wandered into the training complex of Olympique Lyonnais last night, which is situated, in this enticing city, a handy goalkeeper's clearance from Stade Gerland itself. The experience rather reminded me of another time when my eyes popped, chasing Dick Advocaat in the late winter of 1998 and stumbling upon the verdant pasture of PSV Eindhoven's training complex in the woods outside the city.

Well, you'll know the next line. It is just as well, isn't it, or so the chorus goes, that Wednesday's Champions League decider between Lyon and Celtic will not be based on training facilities. Because if that were the case, Celtic, still rooted in the age of Dickens, would come a cropper.

This is, though, a bit of a mystery. Lyon, much like their affable, English-speaking coach, Paul Le Guen, seem something sophisticated, something to aspire to. Look at their facilities, check the ethnic mix of their squad, witness the hi-tech gymnasium which I pressed my nose against last night. In terms of what we've seen, Lyon are actually light years ahead of Celtic.

It is Celtic, though, due to injuries, who may have to promote youth into their squad for tomorrow's Group A decider, and, crude training facilities or not, by heavens they've got it. Liam Miller and Ross Wallace are both outstanding prospects. Craig Beattie also has a decent chance. Shaun Maloney has emerged and is only being held back by the excellence of international strikers around him.

The mystery is that, while we rightly lambast Celtic for not being a Lyon, they're actually doing well in terms of rearing their own. I'm not sure what this says about the facilities debate, except that, if you look also at the Lyon squad, it is every bit Celtic's list of purchased items.

Sometimes French flair and sophistication are packaged to look intimidating. Before Celtic beat Lyon 2-0 at Parkhead in October the Scottish club hadn't beaten French opponents in 35 years of trying in European competition.

In Scotland, we have a tendency to place this among that category of unfathomable truths, as if French flair at football is somehow to do with an alchemy of Gauloise and garlic. French club football, though, has still only won two European trophies in four decades, and even Marseille's triumph in the European Cup in 1993 was mired in allegations of fraud.

What was it Ally McCoist told me recently? ''As a Rangers supporter I don't care if we don't win the Champions League in the next 10 years, just so long as the club, having invested in Murray Park, starts bringing through its own players.'' This is all very laudable, yet football is never quite that simple.

When Rangers face Panathinaikos tonight to try to secure a UEFA Cup spot, the presupposition was that Alex McLeish's men, with Murray Park at their disposal, would be cosseted and primed for such matches. Yet the club is riven with injury, through no known fault of its own, provoking Michael Mols to confess yesterday that he is exhausted and ready for the knacker's yard.

It's simple. Scottish football aspires to continental facilities, such as I have witnessed in Lyon and have previously seen in places like Amsterdam, Eindhoven and Copenhagen. Rangers have gone that extra mile, while Celtic, as yet, have not. Yet it is Celtic who have youths emerging, and Celtic who, right now, appear in better shape.

The point is, tonight at Ibrox and tomorrow in Lyon will confirm the football truth which ranks higher than any facilities debate.

It is the unarguable law of football science which holds that nothing beats a talented manager.

Alex McLeish and Martin O'Neill both fit this category, but in prevailing against Panathinaikos and Lyon, not for a first or last time, they have to prove it again.