Sixes and sevens over nines and tens

I met a former Rangers player a few days ago who told me he feared not seeing his beloved club win the Premiership league title again in his lifetime.

And this wasn't one of my contemporaries from the mists of antiquity. This guy had his own teeth. The lot.

In other words, we're talking about someone who has decades left stretching out in front of him and genuinely despairs of seeing the team he played for emulating his status as a championship winner.

And this is a die-hard, Rangers to the core, fan who lived the dream kind of guy from a hardy old background in Glasgow. Cut him and he bleeds blue blood etc, etc.

Even I would hesitate to go that far when it came to making a prediction of that sort relative to the league title, but Saturday's 2 - 0 win for Celtic at Ibrox did throw up one intriguing thought for someone old enough to have lived through Celtic winning Nine in a Row from the mid-1960's to the mid 1970's and Rangers equalling that achievement from the late 1980's to the late 1990's.

Think about it this way; while Jock Stein's Celtic were making history by becoming the first side to win Nine in a Row, their oldest rivals were still capable of winning a European trophy by beating Moscow Dynamo in Barcelona to become the holders of the European Cup Winners Cup in 1972.

And they beat Celtic in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden twelve months later.

Couyld you imagine that happening now? Me neither.

When Rangers were on their way to Nine in a Row under the management of Graeme Souness and then Walter Smith it was still possible for Celtic to beat them in the Scottish Cup final of 1989 and and win the trophy again after the defeat of Airdrie in 1995.

A win in an Old Firm league match was far from out of the question either.

Lou Macari did it four days after becoming Celtic manager in 1994. Tommy Burns did it as well and there was even the time when Doctor Jo Venglos took five goals off Rangers at Celtic Park.

None of it stopped Rangers' march towards Nine in a Row but periodic victories for Celtic provided temporary respite for a support who felt a sense of desolation.

Now?

Brendan Rodgers has had seven derbies against Rangers and won six of them. The scenes of celebration which accompanied Rangers getting a draw at Celtic Park vouched for the Ibrox supports need to be offered small mercies every now and then.

Pedro Caixinha watched that match from the stand the day before taking control of Rangers as manager.

The Rangers support now falls into two distinct camps where the Portuguese is concerned. There are those who blame Caixinha for everything that has happened since that day and those who blame everyone else but him for Rangers' mediocre record under his leadership.

This season's home form is poor, with defeats from Hibs and Celtic and a draw against Hearts.

Away form is patchy, with a draw at Partick Thistle contributing towards Rangers being in fifth place in the league table.

This state of affairs at a club the size of Rangers can't be allowed to go on in perpetuity, otherwise the narrative will switch from the playing field to the board room unless the fans are given grounds for greater optimism.

But here's the thing.

Celtic fans will be in a similar, question-asking frame of mind if Anderlecht are not overcome in that part of Champions League Group B which is relevant to the Belgians and Brendan Rodgers.

Paris St. Germain and Bayern Munich will go through to the last sixteen of the tournament but a draw for Celtic in Brussels on Wednesday night could go an awfully long way towards providing Europa League football for them beyond the point when It's A Wonderful Life is on the telly.

The club last week published financial figures which show a business in an extremely robust form of health. But a balance sheet, no matter how attractive, isn't a trophy and doesn't get bums off seats.

Celtic's chairman, Ian Bankier, said Rodgers had been the "catalyst" for the significant upturn in the club's profits.

And the riches available to Celtic on the field were exemplified by an examination of the substitutes benches at Ibrox on Saturday.

Rangers brought on a teenager on loan from Manchester City, Aaron Nemane, and a thirty-eight year old, battle-scarred veteran, Kenny Miller.

Celtic initially left out the £20m rated Moussa Dembele and their most expensive signing in the last ten years, the £4.5m Olivier N'tcham.

But the catalyst for change at Celtic Park wants to leave behind a legacy of having strengthened the club's name in Europe once again before he goes elsewhere one day.

And so far as this season is concerned that means Rodgers has to see progress in the form of a third placed finished in the group stages of the Champions League.

Then he needs to remind his employers that some of the cash in the bank, and there's plenty of it, needs to be redirected towards the calibre of signings which fund European respectability.

The thrill of rubbing in the gulf in quality which exists between Celtic and Rangers will never lose its lustre for the fans who revel in the team from Ibrox being at sixes and sevens while they dream of nines and tens in the domestic championship.

But Rodgers will ultimately require greater sustenance to feed his hunger for success on a bigger stage

• Hugh Keevins