Rangers have undoubtedly improved under Steven Gerrard this season – at least that’s the view of Celtic boss Neil Lennon.
The Gers backed Gerrard last summer with the signings of Filip Helander, George Edmundson, Joe Aribo and Ryan Kent, as well as freebies Jordan Jones and Steven Davis.
The idea was that Rangers would go on to mount a real push for the Scottish Premiership title. In the first half of the season, that looked very plausible.
Rangers lost just one of their first 20 league games this season, dropping only seven points in that spell. They ended 2019 with a superb 2-1 away win at Celtic, leaving fans dreaming of a title.
Yet just as they did in the 2018-19 season, Rangers fell apart after the winter break. Three defeats and two draws in the first 10 games of the new year saw the Gers slip way behind Celtic.
With the global pandemic suspending football, Scotland’s league season has been settled. Celtic are champions for a ninth season in a row, and Rangers again finish in second place.
Now, Celtic boss Lennon has given his view on Rangers, telling The Scottish Sun that he thinks ‘there’s no question’ that Rangers have improved this season – but so have the Bhoys.
Lennon praised the club for selling players for big money and reinvesting the cash, whilst hailing Scott Brown for his inspirational play as Celtic again beat Rangers to the title.
“There’s no question that Rangers have improved but what gets overlooked is that we’ve improved,” said Lennon. “And that’s off the back of Brendan selling Moussa Dembele for £20m and at the start of this season us selling Kieran for £25m. So whatever money we spent was recouped on the sales of players. So our recruitment worked pretty well for us — allied to the core group of players.”
“We’ve also got an iconic captain in Scott Brown. I know this from my own experience — captaining Celtic is a huge responsibility and this guy has done it for nine or ten years,” he added.
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