Turning full circle

It’s been a long wait.

For anyone who endured the Souness/Smith and early Advocaat era at Celtic, the memories are still raw. Rangers were signing England internationals. Celtic were signing Martin Hayes, Wayne Biggins and Carl Muggleton.

Rangers were playing in the Champions League. Celtic were losing to Neuchatel Xamax in the Uefa cup.

Rangers had cash in abundance. Celtic had biscuit crumbs.

Rangers had the Laudrup/Gascoigne halo effect. Everything Celtic had turned to Scheidt.

But maybe – and it’s only a maybe – it was worth it.

The late 80s and early 90s saw Rangers in full “we arra peepul” cry. And didn’t they let us know it. Ably assisted by their fans in the Scottish press, they took every opportunity to brandish their superior cash, their super stadium and their success. They mocked, condemned and humiliated Celtic fans, players and managers. But when people have egomaniac tendencies, they rarely have friends to advocate humility. The best they might have is a sensible wife urging them to watch their spending, save a little for a rainy day. Rangers lacked that – and it’s been bucketing down lately.

You can cheerfully ignore what the tabloids tell you. The evidence of Rangers’ decline is there to be perused – the third place finish last season, the offloading of their own youth development programme, giving up their retail outlets, the fact that they are about to embark on a fourth full overhaul of the squad, post-Advocaat, with ever-cheaper players coming in.

Meanwhile, Celtic are not satisfied with signing players like Thomas Gravesen from Real Madrid or a Dutch full international striker in Jan Venegoor of Hesselink – one of the best strikers in Britain – or even Shunsuke Nakamura, who must surely be tempting the aforementioned Real Madrid, given the fact that he is a far superior player to the right-sided free kick specialist who will be plying his trade in Los Angeles next season.

Why is all this relevant? Because, at long last, that hex sign that hung over Celtic Park for more than a decade seems to have moved south. Only football (and Nacho Novo) seems to have that quite merciless ability to put the studs in when a man is down and nearly out - the sort of thing that sees an already fragile club finding itself facing sanctions for signing a player who was injured before he could play a game.

We are now going to see just how much of a miracle-worker Walter Smith is – without the luxury of a Laudrup, Gascoigne or Hately, though there’s always a Coisty.

And somehow, it’s difficult to imagine Celtic messing up the position of supremacy that has been so hard won.

Many Celtic fans are wary of gloating too much over their rivals’ embarrassments – perhaps the memories are too raw; perhaps there is the superstition that pride will precipitate another fall; maybe it just seems like bad manners. And choosing not to seek out Rangers fans for harassment is certainly the more dignified and meritorious approach.

But remember this the next time you allow yourself a chuckle of schadenfreude. All the problems that Rangers are now enduring are the results of their crass "Loadsamoney” tactics beginning in the 1980s and carrying on throughout the David Murray reign.

They are paying for their vainglorious excesses. And, for all those Celtic fans who endured the jibes, the headlines and the cracked crests – you’ve paid for this time in full. Enjoy it – it’s yours.

The ins and outs of a transfer window

We are used to it now – the silence that hangs over Celtic Park when it’s transfer time. But that doesn’t seem as difficult to put up with as it once was because, unlike during the bad old times of the Kelly dynasty, Celtic actually get things done these days.

Just a few months ago, we were wondering who the hell Lee Naylor was, having expected Michael Kadlec to sign from Sparta Prague. Half-way through the season, Naylor now looks to be one of the best left backs in British football making a nonsense of any disappointment at losing out on Kadlec.

There is a new professionalism at Celtic, headed by financial heavyweights of international standing in Dermot Desmond and Brian Quinn, Peter Lawell a chief executive who understands the value of getting on with doing business rather than making himself a television personality and, crucially, in Gordon Strachan a manager who has been more thorough in his approach than any of his predecessors – and more so than virtually all of his peers.

Strachan occasionally refers to his database containing several alternatives to all of his prime targets. This – and the fact that he doesn’t attempt to hold a gun to Lawell’s head, demanding his first choice signing at all costs – gives Celtic an immensely strong bargaining hand when it comes to bringing in talent. The success of the Naylor signing, apparently a third choice for Strachan, merely increases confidence that failing to persuade one target to sign will not undermine the immense progress that is being made on the park.

All this is more pertinent when considering the case of Anthony Stokes, who it seems is likely to sign for Charlton or Sunderland when offered the chance to join a team with some genuine top-class players, experience Champions League football and be at a club where the likes of Henrik Larsson have come to international prominence.

Stokes is entitled to make his own decisions, though passing up the chance to sign for Celtic for financial reasons may be a decision he will regret. The good news is that there is room for real confidence that whoever Strachan turns to is likely to be a quality player. In fact, he has yet to make a poor signing.

Various names have been bandied about as potential strikers with the unpalatable fact being that hard-working, gifted players such as Maciej Zurawski and Kenny Miller are simply not scoring enough goals.

At least one central defender will be required for the Champions League with suitable cover at left back a necessity, given the physical abuse Naylor has received on the pitch. And the names Scott Brown and Kevin Thomson continue to be linked to the club.

On the way out are Stephen Pearson – an excellent player who has simply been unable to overcome ferocious opposition in securing a left-sided place and Alan Thompson who will be asked to close the door quietly on the way out, given the fact that he has rarely looked interested in breaking sweat since Martin O’Neill gave him one of those bumper contracts he reserved for his favourite players.

But what is so exciting for Celtic just now is the fact that the rapid improvement in the quality of the squad seems to be continuing under the most astute manager the club has had in decades. Meanwhile, we compete with a Rangers in disarray, faced with the near certainty of a second season without a trophy, with perhaps the fifth-best squad in Scotland and precious little money for the much hailed miracle worker Walter Smith to use in effecting a recovery.

All this as Sir David “Moonbeam” Murray prepares to hand over the remnants of a once mighty Rangers to another investor. Investing, in what, one wonders.