Push Has Got To Shove For Rangers

The story goes that Celtic's principal shareholder, Dermot Desmond, was as bilious as a billionaire can be after watching his club lose to Rangers in last season's Scottish Cup semi final at Hampden.

Ronny Deila had effectively written the last paragraph of his resignation letter by dint of his team's miserable performance and the manager was soon to be replaced by someone of greater experience, accomplishment and expertise.

The wisdom of making that change was evidenced by Celtic's win over Rangers on Sunday at the penultimate stage of the League Cup.

But what response to that result will come from the Ibrox board of directors?

Earlier in the day Rangers had slumped to fifth place in the Premiership table by virtue of St. Johnstone's win over Dundee at McDiarmid Park. The Perth side will, co-incidentally, visit Ibrox on Wednesday for a league game, the importance of which needs no explanation under the prevailing circumstances.

It is all very well being seven points behind Celtic in the league table, with Brendan Rodgers' side also having a game in hand, but if the gap between Rangers and St. Johnstone was to grow any larger then the reaction would be utterly predictable.

Desmond paid to have his irritation over Rangers' cup victory ended at a stroke. What precisely do Rangers propose to do about the yawning chasm which exists between themselves and their greatest rivals?

Mark Warburton claimed after Sunday's reversal that the gulf between the sides was narrowing. Nobody believed him.

Rangers' outstanding goalkeeper on the day, Matt Gilks, suggested Rangers had outplayed Celtic for periods of the cup tie. Absolutely no-one believed him.

There's only so much whistling in the dark that can go on before somebody turns the lights back on.

Storm clouds are gathering above the head of a manager whose summer time signings are being called into question on the grounds that few of them get a game.

Rumblings are also being heard concerning the cause celebre, Joey Barton, who was brought to Ibrox with a reputation for mayhem and proved every word of it was true while turning into a festering sore the club has yet to heal one way or another.

Why was he brought to Glasgow in the first place when there was a better than average chance he would implode and the club would suffer as a result?

Joe Garner was a the marquee signing from Preston North End. On the bench against Celtic before finding anonymity as a belated sub on Sunday.

Michael O'Halloran cost £500,000 from St. Johnstone. Disappeared without trace would be the best way to summarise his recent weeks at Ibrox.

Celtic, as their manager promised at the weekend, will spend decent money in the January transfer window to strengthen their squad for the purposes of Champions League qualification.

Will Rangers respond in kind or will Warburton continue to work in an oppressive environment? There are supporters who now think the manager's track record in the market place makes him a risk with money.

In short, Rangers are fast approaching a watershed moment.

Unless Rodgers gets bored with Celtic's domination of Scottish football and seeks alternative employment elsewhere, the chances of him taking the club to a record breaking ten titles in a row are extremely high.

The chances of the Rangers support accepting mid-table mediocrity at the same time are extremely low.

Significant happenings off the park at Ibrox are therefore awaited with baited breath

Either Warburton will get fed up working with one hand, or possibly both, tied behind his back and seek to get out before his reputation suffers further damage or Rangers will need to invest money in the team and show support for a manager who looks increasingly under strain.

But for a questionable decision to disallow a goal for Celtic, heroics from Gilks, and chances squandered by Rodgers' team, Sunday's final score could have been of embarrassing proportions for Rangers. Again.

It's not enough for their fans to hope that the damage done is written off if Celtic lose the cup final to Aberdeen next month.

It's not enough for the Rangers fans to poke fun at Celtic shedding goals in the Champions League while they struggle to remember the last time their club played in Europe.

Rangers have to start doing something for themselves.

Meanwhile, Celtic and Aberdeen promise to provide a League Cup final befitting of the occasion at Hampden on November 27, but let there be no nonsense talked about ticket allocation.

A fifty-fifty split is only right and fair.

All of the mockery surrounding Saturday's attendance of 16,183 at the semi-final between Morton and Aberdeen is unjustified.

The crowd at Hampden was far in excess of the aggregate crowd who attended THREE Premiership matches at the weekend, and the Aberdeen fans were required to travel a considerable distance for a 12.15pm. kick-off in Glasgow.

When Celtic played Alloa Athletic at home in the quarter finals of the competition the crowd was a fraction of their ground's official capacity.

So should they be denied a fifty-fifty share of the tickets for the final? Of course not.

Let both clubs be equally represented on the big day and remember there's always somebody worse off than yourself. And at the moment that's Mark Warburton.