IT was a sad indictment of just how one-sided the Scottish title race has now become when Celtic agreed to loan Ryan Christie to Aberdeen until the end of the season during the January transfer window.
Has any football club in history given one of the closest clubs to them in the table, not to mention their main rival in the previous two campaigns, a player midway through a campaign before? It is very hard to think of another instance of it happening anywhere in the game.
Yes, the Parkhead outfit were, courtesy of their 2-1 win over Rangers at Ibrox on Hogmanay, no fewer than 19 points clear at the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership table and guaranteed to triumph for the sixth consecutive season, but it was still a startling move.
Read more: Kilmarnock 1 Aberdeen 2: Dons late show steals the points at Rugby Park
Christie is not just any old player either. He may hardly have featured regularly for Brendan Rodgers’s side in the first half of this term – the midfielder made just four starts and seven appearances overall in six months.
Yet, the 21-year-old, who joined the Scottish champions from Scottish Cup winners Inverness Caledonian Thistle for a £500,000 transfer fee back in 2015, is still an exceptional young talent.
He has reminded people of just how good he is since arriving at Pittodrie last month. In his four outings so far he has helped Derek McInnes’s team win four times and has netted twice in the process.
The second of those strikes, which came in the 7-2 hammering of Motherwell in their rearranged league game last Wednesday evening, will be a contender for Goal of the Season come May.
Ash Taylor laid the ball back to Christie on the edge of the opposition area and he dinked the ball over the heads of the opposition defence and into the top corner with an instinctive flick of the outside of left foot.
His sublime effort – which led to one tabloid dubbing him “Ryanaldinho” – made ripples around the world and prompted Brazilian paper Globo Esporte to suggest he be considered for The Puskas Award which is given to “the most aesthetically significant, or most beautiful goal of the year”.
Aberdeen were enjoying decent form – they had won their previous four games – before McInnes strengthened his squad. But Christie has improved them significantly and increased their chances of recording a hat-trick of second-placed finishes in the top flight greatly.
Read more: Kilmarnock 1 Aberdeen 2: Dons late show steals the points at Rugby Park
The competition for places that the north-east club now have in their forward positions – they can field Christie, Jonny Hayes, Niall McGinn, Peter Pawlett, Adam Rooney, Jayden Stockley and Miles Storey – has ensured consistently high performance levels. It is no coincidence that they have scored 19 times in their seven games this year.
There is no chance of Aberdeen pushing, as they had done in the last two years when Ronny Deila was in charge at Celtic, for their first Scottish title since 1985. But they can certainly prevent Rangers, who are now six points adrift and have an inferior goal difference, from finishing runners-up.
Securing the services of Christie could well prove to be the decisive factor in them achieving their goal. That is not a fact which will have been lost on those in charge at Celtic when they sanctioned his switch.
It is putting it mildly to state that interactions between the respective boards at Celtic and Rangers haven’t been especially cordial since the latter returned to the top flight after a four year absence last summer.
The rows that blew up after visiting fans vandalised the toilets at Celtic Park during the league match there in September and when the Ibrox club subsequently released a statement expressing their anger at the hanging of effigies by the home support have possibly left relations at an all-time low.
It is not being too cynical to suggest that sending Christie, the Scottish Football Writers’ Association Young Player of the Year in 2015, to Pittodrie was a deliberate prod in the eye of their city rivals.
Read more: Kilmarnock 1 Aberdeen 2: Dons late show steals the points at Rugby Park
Rangers, who lost 2-1 Dundee at Dens Park yesterday, may well receive a lift when their interim manager is brought in. The form of most teams does pick up, even just fleetingly, when there is a change in the dugout. The new man at the helm may be able to eke more out of the resources at his disposal than his predecessor.
However, they have won just one of their last six league games. Their collapse since their Christmas Eve victory over Inverness at Ibrox, a result which sent them seven points clear, has been staggering. Anyone who witnessed their sorry showing yesterday won't harbour much hope of them halting the slide.
Aberdeen’s greater defensive reliability, superior firepower and strength in depth, which has increased considerably with Christie’s arrival from Celtic, should see them finish second and finis second comfortably.
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