Rangers boss Mark Warburton and Celtic’s Brendan Rodgers assess whether their friendship can continue during Old Firm rivalry

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Glasgow Rangers and Celtic will meet in the league for the first time in four years in September.

Rangers boss Mark Warburton is adamant that his friendship with Brendan Rodgers will survive and continue despite the intensity of the Old Firm rivalry, the Evening Times reports, while his Celtic counterpart has issued a very similar response to the Telegraph when asked for his own opinion on the matter.

The pair worked together when the Hoops boss was in charge of Watford, with Warburton being a prominent figure in the club’s academy at the time.

But with Rodgers now being given the task of succeeding Ronny Deila, while the Light Blues boss has taken his side into the Scottish Premiership, the two men will be lining up against each other on a regular basis in the top flight next term.

But Warburton has insisted that the two managers have an understanding that will ensure that they will remain friendly even during one of the most intense rivalries in all of football.

“Absolutely [the friendship will survive]. That’s the nature of the game,” he told the Evening Times.

“We both realise that and if I have a problem with Brendan, he knows I’ll pick the phone up to him and speak to him.

“I know Brendan is more than professional enough to do exactly the same.”

Meanwhile, Rodgers has been just as insistent that the strain that comes from the Old Firm rivalry will not have an impact on the relationship between the two managers.

“We have a friendship that goes back a number of years so no matter how you people try to portray it, or might want to work it, this is a friendship that doesn’t change,” he told the Telegraph.

Although both men have played down any chances of their friendship being evaporated in the heat of the Old Firm cauldron, the fact that both are near the top of their profession arguably proves that they have the kind of desire to win that could create tension as each meeting goes by, especially if the Gers are able to become the Bhoys’ nearest challengers for the league crown.

But if both managers are able to ensure that the rivalry does not reach the dugout, then the supporters may get to see some tremendous fixtures between the two clubs as both will be focused on their own strengths rather than concentrating on trying to prevent the other taking the bragging rights.