Chris Sutton defends Rangers and Celtic on Twitter after on-air rant by talkSPORT host
Chris Sutton leapt to the defence of Rangers and Celtic after PSV beat Arsenal in the Europa League on Thursday night.
On Tuesday, after it was confirmed that Celtic would finish bottom of their Champions League group, talkSPORT host Jason Cundy called the two Old Firm clubs “fourth-tier” in European football.
However, Rangers got to the Champions League group stages this season by beating PSV in the qualifiers but PSV went and beat Premier League leaders Arsenal 2-0 in the Europa League on Thursday.
That led to ex-Celtic striker Sutton tweeting: “Arsenal lose to PSV. Rangers knocked out PSV from the Champions League.
“So by a certain person’s logic does it mean that Arsenal are at fifth tier level in European competition?”
More of this, please
Cundy and co-host Jamie O’Hara couldn’t have been more condescending of Scottish football if they tried earlier this week.
Ex-Chelsea player Cundy said: “I’m thinking do you know what, there’s no reason why these Scottish sides can’t do something.
“Then all of a sudden you realise, actually, they are miles off it.
“They’re not even close.”
While Celtic fans will be the first to admit they should have done better in their Champions League group, Rangers were never expected to pull up any trees in a group containing Napoli, Ajax and Liverpool.
Sure, we could have kept it a bit tighter in games and not suffered such embarrassing, heavy defeats.
But still, this is the Champions League and the two Old Firm clubs are nowhere near Europe’s elite.
Our run in the Europa League last season must count for something.
We beat Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig on the way to Seville, where just one penalty was enough to see us lose the final against Frankfurt.
Scottish football’s performance in European football has improved a lot in the last couple of years – mainly because of Rangers – but you cannot seriously expect the Old Firm to be getting to the knock-out stages of the Champions League on a regular basis.
We just don’t have the financial capabilities.
It’s good to see Sutton sticking up for Rangers and Celtic.
Scottish football needs more of that to be taken seriously.
In other Rangers news, this ex-Premier League manager is a “stand-out” to replace Giovanni van Bronckhorst as the manager at Ibrox.