Paul Merson admits he would ‘love to see’ Rangers and Celtic play in England
Paul Merson has claimed that he would “love to see” Rangers in the English footballing pyramid.
The prospect of the Gers and bitter rivals Celtic being incorporated into the Premier League is one that has been brought up on numerous occasions, with Ibrox manager Steven Gerrard even voicing his support for the idea earlier this year.
And Merson is in favour of the Old Firm making the move south of the border – provided they start at the bottom of the league system.
Speaking on The Lockdown Tactics podcast, he said: “Celtic and Rangers are massive football clubs.
“When I was playing you wanted Rangers or Celtic to play in your testimonial game. Both would bring 20,000 supporters to the game.
“Would I want to see them straight in at the English Premier League? It’s a hard one. Leeds United are a big football club and they’d ask why can Celtic and Rangers come straight in and we are not in the Premier League.
“But if they were prepared to start at League Two and work their way through the leagues then I’d love to see that. I’m sure both clubs would be able to get through the leagues, no problem.”
Is Merson right about this one?
As the Sky Sports pundit points out, it’s a difficult debate.
If we assume for one second that both clubs were in favour of the idea and the relevant governing bodies were willing to grant them permission to make the move, there would almost certainly be a number of clubs left furious if the Old Firm were to just waltz into the Premier League without having earned that right.
At the same time, both are used to being the biggest clubs in their domestic game, and so the prospect of dropping into the lower leagues would be a bitter pill to swallow.
Andy Gray recently argued that bringing in the Old Firm would be an obvious way of improving the English top flight, although it’s not easy to see how the Scottish game as a whole would not be put in serious jeopardy without a full integration of all teams into the Football League.
Without such a move, you would imagine that interest in Scottish football would drop sharply.
The issue with that is that if Merson is advocating for Rangers and Celtic to be put in League Two, where would every other Scottish club be housed, and what level would they have to drop down to to be accommodated?
In other Rangers news, Ibrox Exclusive: Former teammate Ivan Toney would be top signing for Gers, claims Alex Bruce.