Rangers and Celtic failures force annoyed Ally McCoist to agree with harsh talkSPORT pundit
Ally McCoist has admitted that “annoyingly” his talkSPORT colleague Jason Cundy is right about Rangers and Celtic failing in Europe.
Following Celtic’s elimination from the Champions League on Tuesday night (25 October) Cundy had been shouting over donkey noises that Scottish football was “bang average” on talkSPORT, going on to accuse it of being “fourth tier” and “lightyears behind”, after the Hoops picked up just two points in their group.
The Gers have yet to record any points and have been thrashed three times out of four ahead of their trip to Napoli on Wednesday night, with only Allan McGregor preventing a fourth in the 2-0 loss at Liverpool, and that record has forced McCoist to agree with his “harsh” fellow pundit.
Speaking on talkSPORT breakfast on Wednesday morning (26 October) the Ibrox hero said: “Yeah he’s right, the annoying thing is he’s right, miles behind top level European football. Course he’s right. Scottish clubs in Europe this year have been a big disappointment.
“After last season where Rangers were fantastic in getting to a Europa League final, this season Scottish clubs… Rangers did well getting to the Champions League with a good result over in Holland, but the fact of the matter is, and I include Hearts and Motherwell, the results have been really, really poor.
“There’s absolutely no chance that Scottish clubs can compete on a consistent basis with the finances of the top teams in European football, that’s the logistics of it.
“But Rangers and Celtic can’t have it both ways because they’ve got more money than the rest of the teams in Scotland.
“I’ve been really disappointed in the level of result from Scottish teams in Europe so from that point I tend to agree with Jason. I think he’s slightly harsh with the way he puts it over.”
Flop
Cundy was obviously looking for a reaction on Tuesday night but McCoist is right, you can’t argue with the results which have been bad.
The Light Blues were drawn in probably the toughest group but they have so far shown that to be the case to an almost embarrassing degree.
They proved last season they can compete with big European sides so there is really no excuse to have capitulated so badly every time this year.
It is part of a worrying regression for the team in general, with Giovanni van Bronckhorst under pressure now that he is also struggling to get results domestically.
It would be a surprise for there to be a positive outcome in Naples, but another thrashing similar to the 7-1 at Ibrox when Liverpool visited would put his future under even greater immediate scrutiny.
A return to the top European competition has proven to be anything but enjoyable for Gers fans, and while it is part of a pattern with the other Scottish teams on the continent, last season’s run set the Bears apart and to fall back to the mean this year has been very poor.
In other Rangers news, the commentators were baffled why Antonio Colak wasn’t awarded a penalty in the draw with Livingston.