Easy as ABC for Celtic

My wife and I celebrated 45 years of marriage yesterday, which is roughly three life sentences back to back for a long suffering woman. But I digress.

We got hitched on the same day as Rangers played Celtic and the nuptuals were delayed until the members of the crowd, otherwise known as the congregation, discovered the half-time score from Ibrox by circling a transistor radio while on the forecourt of the church.

We'll draw a veil over the remainder of the day by saying some enjoyed a hearty meal at the wedding reception and others were unable to take solids.

It's re-assuring to know that, getting on for half a century later, nothing has changed and there'll be similar tales to be told of eccentric behaviour when other people tie the knot on September 10.

We didn't have conspiracy theories in 1971, just outstanding football players at both halves of what was then allowed to be called the Old Firm. Now we could start a fight in an empty house.

Rangers are now top of the league while having an identical number of points, and a replica goal difference, to St. Johnstone. But if you want to describe that as sinister you'll first have to admit you didn't know 'R' came before 'S' in the alphabet. Go ahead if you like.

What is a simple as ABC is that Celtic versus Hapoel Beer Sheva in the Champions League qualifiers on Wednesday night is a defining moment for Brendan Rodgers, even though that might be hard to take for a man who has only had two competitive games in charge of his new club on a domestic basis.

But blue chip managers are acquired, and have to be paid for, because they're extraordinarily good and are capable of delivering exceptional accomplishments.

One of the most commonly voiced opinions a from Celtic supporters now is: "Ronny Deila wouldn't have won that game, but Brendan Rodgers did."

The reason for this is simple. European football underlined the fact that the Norwegian didn't know what he was doing over the course of a catastrophic catalogue of calamitous blunders which cost Celtic tens of millions of pounds in lost revenue. Money they could have had if they'd possessed a manager who picked the right team, made the appropriate substitutions and altered his tactical approach in a way that didn't baffle his own players and supporters.

Rodgers has now shown that he wasn't defined by the horrifically embarrassing defeat to Gibraltar's Lincoln Red Imps in July. But he will be stigmatised if anything happens over the course of the two legs against the Israelis. If Celtic fail to qualify for the group stages of the Champions League then nothing will have changed from the time when Deila was blundering his way across Europe.

Celtic need the group stages because of the financial windfall that brings and because hob-nobbing with the continent's elite is the only way to get invited to to play at rich men's games like the International Champions Cup.

Overblown and wearisome an exercise it may be, throwing what would once have been known as Celtic reserves against inter Milan in front of a less than enthralled crowd in Limerick on Saturday night.

But it certainly helps pay the club's bills when you see the size of the cheque for participation in an otherwise worthless sideshow.

The opportunity to pick up good money for old rope won't be there if Celtic continue to to be non-participants in the most prestigious club tournament at European level.

Managers on more than two million pounds a year are expected to win domestic titles in Scotland. Men of that calibre are really being challenged too with the responsibility of restoring Celtic's reputation on the continental stage.

And sides from Israel who have just won their first national title in forty years are not considered to be a terrifying impediment to that ambition.

It is unfair that Rodgers is confronted by a defining moment before he's had time to memorise the route from his West End of Glasgow home to Celtic Park but the ability to handle pressure is what goes with the big bucks.

Speaking of which, there are managers and players who could learn from Dundee's Paul Hartley and Darren O'Dea.

While the airwaves crackled over referee Craig Thomson's failure to send off Rangers' Harry Forrester at Dens Park the Dundee boss and his defender calmly refused to provide hysterical headlines by saying it wasn't their job to get opposing players red carded or complain about people who, as O'Dea commented, are kicked more than they kick out.

The two of them are early contenders for football's version of the Nobel Peace prize, unlike the caller to Superscoreboard on Saturday evening who said I sounded like a "wasp in a jar" while going on about the controversy.

Would I be in trouble with the SFA's Compliance Officer if I told him to buzz off?

What I'll do instead is start a book on the tastiest insults directed my way this season and offer a bottle of vintage wine from the Keevins Cellar to the winner next May. Don't all rush at once.