Celtic meet Pedro Caixinha’s Glasgow Rangers at Ibrox next week.
Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers told The Telegraph this weekend that Rangers will be planning to win the Scottish Premiership this season, based on their spending. Gers manager Pedro Caixinha oversaw a clearout at Ibrox this past summer, in which eight new players – and three loan additions – joined Rangers.
Two of them, Alfredo Morelos and Graham Dorrans, were on the scoresheet in the 2-2 draw at Partick Thistle on Friday and the Celtic manager claims that his side’s Old Firm rivals – who are five points behind them in the table – should be looking to go all the way.
As it happens, Rodgers’s comments come less than a week before both Glasgow giants square off at Ibrox in the first Old Firm derby of the season.
And it is possible that the Northern Irishman is alleviating – or trying to alleviate – some pressure on his troops by pointing out Rangers’ outlay, but it won’t work. Celtic, despite Rodgers’s suggestions that Caixinha has spent more than him, remain firm favourites and that’s the tag they’ll bring into the game.
The Hoops are bruised, having lost 5-0 to Paris Saint-Germain, and Rodgers’s comments read like a poor attempt to make out as if his side should be considered underdogs.
The Gers don’t quite have a ‘nothing to lose’ mentality, because victory would reduce the deficit to five points from the Premiership leaders and reigning champions, but defeat for Celtic is a much bigger story than it is for Rangers and the former Liverpool boss will do well to convince his players that they aren’t expected to win.
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