Glasgow Rangers have a looked a lot more impressive this season, with the Ibrox side currently second in the Scottish Premiership.
Chris Sutton has told Scottish Football Extra on BT Sport (broadcast on 27th February 2018 from 18:45) that he has been impressed by Graeme Murty’s performance since being appointed Rangers boss, and suggested that Celtic fans are starting to take the Gers slightly more seriously.
After an inconsistent start to his second spell as caretaker manager, Murty showed enough to get the job until the end of the season and has arguably proved to be a very sound appointment by the Light Blues hierarchy.
Rangers now look ready to seize the position of the Hoops’ nearest challengers in the Scottish Premiership having put some daylight between themselves and Aberdeen. And while Sutton stopped well short of suggesting that Brendan Rodgers will be concerned about the Gers, he expressed his belief that Hoops fans will no longer be taking their bitter rivals lightly.
“I think it’s refreshing from a Rangers supporter’s point of view that they haven’t got a fantasist anymore as manager, they have a straight-talker. I think he’s lowered expectations but he’s raised the standards.
“If you’re a Celtic fan, I don’t think they’ve looked over their shoulders the last couple of years but now, maybe they’re glancing and thinking, Rangers aren’t a pub team anymore.”
With Celtic now out of the Europa League and Rangers surely high on confidence, it will be interesting to see whether there are any twists and turns to come this term with both sides now concentrating on the same competitions.
And of course, the next Old Firm clash is just emerging on the horizon and that may provide a few more answers as to whether Celtic need to start worrying about Rangers just that little bit more.
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