Celtic battered their Old Firm rivals 5-1 on Saturday afternoon.
Ray Parlour has revealed to talkSPORT the pre-Old Firm pep talk he gave to Celtic defender Kolo Toure a week before their 5-1 demolition of Rangers on Saturday.
The Bhoys secured the bragging rights in ruthless fashion as a Moussa Dembele hat-trick helped Brendan Rodgers’s side to an emphatic win over the Gers.
Toure joined Celtic on a free transfer in the summer and it was the Ivorian’s first experience of such a hostile fixture, though the 35-year-old defender seemed to come through it okay.
Parlour, who played with the centre-back at Arsenal, was with his former team-mate for a Legends match against AC Milan at the Emirates a week before the Old Firm.
And the Gunners legend has revealed what he told Toure about the upcoming Rangers match.
“Kolo played in our legends game the week before. The first thing I said to him was, ‘That Old Firm derby, Kolo. You make sure you put a good performance in, and if you lose don’t go out for at least a month’,” he told talkSPORT.
“And he said ‘Yes I know the importance of it’ so he’ll be delighted that he was on the winning side.”
Of course, Parlour never experienced a Celtic – Rangers match-up, but the 43-year-old, who spent 12 years with Arsenal, will have encountered plenty of North London derbies with Tottenham Hotspur down the years.
Parlour also played with Philippe Senderos – now at Rangers – during his time with the North Londoners, but the Swiss centre-back endured a horrendous first experience of the Old Firm and was sent off for a second yellow card with 15 minutes to go.
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