‘I’d like to hit you with stats’ – Rae delivers Rangers title race verdict amid pandemic chaos
Alex Rae has insisted that history dictates Celtic cannot be handed the Scottish Premiership title over Rangers until they have mathematically won it.
All football in Scotland has been postponed in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic, and there is little certainty as to whether or not the season will be completed at all.
The Gers are currently 13 points behind their bitter rivals at the top of the table, but ex-Ibrox man Rae believes that the title race cannot be declared over until they are out of the running entirely.
Speaking to the Scottish Sun, he said: “I’d like to hit you with stats.
“In 2007/08, Rangers dropped 15 points in their last nine games to lose the league. In 2008/09, Celtic dropped 11 points in their last ten games, and they once had a lead at seven points. In 2004/05, Celtic dropped nine points in their last ten games to drop the title despite beating Rangers to go five points clear with four games to play.
“So it doesn’t matter if it’s a point or two, whether it’s Liverpool with 25 or Celtic with 13. None of them have actually won the title. So to give it over, I can’t see how that can possibly happen.
“People say ‘it’s unprecedented times’, but in what point in history did anybody in football actually get handed a title without mathematically winning it?”
Does Rae have a point here?
Of course he does, yes.
At the end of the day, it will take a minor miracle for Celtic to slip up now and hand the title to us, but as Rae has very astutely pointed out here, these kind of miracles do happen.
Anything could derail Celtic’s run between now and the time that the season is eventually completed, and for that reason alone we have to play any and all remaining fixtures.
This is an issue at the other end of the table too, where relegation battles have been cut cruelly short for the sides currently in danger.
The only fair thing to do is to finish the season, even if that means waiting months to do so.
In other Rangers news, ‘Plain for everyone to see’ – Ally McCoist reacts to bumper Gers report.