ANDY WALKER believes the rivalry between Celtic and Rangers is now “redundant” because of how far his former club find themselves ahead of the Ibrox side.
Walker has been left bemused by the state of Rangers at this moment in time, most notably their failure to land a manager before Sunday’s derby.
And while on the day those same old antagonistic feelings will rise to the surface, this one-time Parkhead favourite believes Celtic are too powerful to overly concern themselves with the goings-on from the other side of Glasgow.
Walker said: “There is a crisis of leadership at Rangers. I can't believe they haven't got someone in place at the moment.
“I can't believe just the general process of picking any head coach. Who does that? Why would you not have a football person having some sort of input?
"From what I can see it is a board that all have got different skill sets but not really football orientated.
“I think right now the Celtic-Rangers rivalry is a wee bit redundant. It will be for a while. I don't think Celtic are interested in comparing themselves to Rangers, being better than Rangers – that is gone. It's up to Rangers to get their act in order.
“I think the important thing for Celtic is to keep being the way that they are. They've been spending a bit of money, they've got a really good manager and he's spent a little and had a lot of success with Moussa Dembele, he's spent a lot on Scott Sinclair and he's had a lot of success.
“Even if Brendan was to go in the next year or two, I think Celtic's model should be to get someone in who is as good as he is and continue to try and get not just Champions League football, but just to make their mark. They're the bigger challenges for Celtic.”
Walker is a huge fan of Brendan Rodgers who he believes does love Celtic but will, in the not too distant future, return to the English Premier League.
However, the Northern Irishman’s strong bond with majority shareholder Dermot Desmond will keep him in Glasgow for a few years yet.
Walker said: “I don’t know if I’m reading this right but from what I know he sort of bypasses (Peter Lawwell) and has a much closer relationship with Dermot. He goes over to Ireland and speaks to him.
“Dermot got him in and I think that makes a difference. That model Celtic had under Ronny Deila where Peter Lawwell and John Park were very influential in transfers – maybe to a lesser extent when Neil Lennon was there – I don’t think you are getting that now.
“He can say, ‘me and Peter get on great’ but from what I hear he is much closer to Dermot Desmond. There is a level of investment available and I don’t think Celtic have gone there yet. I think they could spend more money if they really wanted to. It’s a good thing.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel