Celtic are attracting the best young British players – Rangers are losing them.
Celtic swooped last week to seal an impressive deal for talented teenager Kundai Benyu.
The Scottish champions beat competition from top English clubs including Tottenham Hotspur to sign the 19-year-old from Ipswich Town.
Benyu is highly regarded, and signing him underlines how far ahead they are of rivals Rangers.
Brendan Rodgers with Celtic chief executive Peter Lawwell
Instead of signing the best young talent in Britain like Celtic, Rangers have just lost one of them.
Billy Gilmour completed his move to Chelsea this week, with the 15-year-old whizkid tempted away from Rangers despite their best efforts to keep him.
While Rangers could have offered Gilmour a faster route to first team football, the talented youngster felt his career will be better served by making the switch.
Time will tell if he regrets that decision, but what matters is that he made it in the first place.
Rangers manager Pedro Caixinha
Celtic finished 39 points above Rangers last season and the choices of Benyu and Gilmour reflect this.
One feels he is better off moving to Scotland, and the other felt he was not.
If the roles were reversed, would Rangers have been able to sign Benyu? Probably not. Would Celtic have kept Gilmour? Possibly, although the lure of Chelsea was always going to be hard to resist.
Rangers’ challenge over the next 12 months is to become a destination for top British talent so that like Celtic they can find hidden gems who can become the building blocks for future success.
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