BBC Sport’s Tom English: Fashion Sakala Celtic bombast can come back to haunt Rangers, may make Michael Beale cringe
Fashion Sakala is the latest in a long line of Rangers figures to “boast” about Celtic despite enough evidence to the contrary to “choke an elephant”, says Tom English.
In the run up to the League Cup final at Hampden Park on Sunday afternoon (26 February) the Zambian forward said, via the Daily Record: “Yes we’re better than them, so much better! But we’re nine points behind! We’ll keep fighting anyway. I think we are such a better club. A far better club. If we get that trophy on Sunday it will prove that we are a better team than them.”
The claims have drawn a reaction from pundits, and now BBC Sport writer English has dismissed Sakala as joining the ranks of Kyle Lafferty, Joey Barton, Sheyi Ojo and Pedro Caixinha as making claims that evidence didn’t back up.
In his column for BBC Sport: “For the longest time, Celtic have heard bombast from across the city, loud boasts from Rangers about how they are the best team in Scotland despite a body of evidence to the contrary, a file so thick it could choke an elephant.
“In declaring his improving team the finest in the country despite trailing their rivals by nine points in the league, Fashion Sakala was the latest in a long line of Ibrox folk to stumble into this area.
“Big talk has a habit of boomeranging back and hitting you right between the eyes in the Old Firm derby.
“If Sakala wasn’t aware of the power of his words and how they would be plastered across the back pages, he knows it now. Coming out with this stuff a few days before a League Cup final is not exactly sensible…
“Sakala is a young player, but declaring Rangers as the supreme team in the land rarely ends well when, in reality rather than in fantasy, Celtic have been the dominant force in 10 of the previous 11 seasons, a run that might well become 11 in 12. They are certainly favourites to win another treble.
“Michael Beale might have cringed at Sakala’s words because the Rangers manager has managed to walk that fine line between confidence in his own team and respect for Celtic.
“Offering a red rag to Celtic’s bulls is only going to make a difficult job even tougher.”
High stakes
It is true that Sakala’s, and Beale’s, words in the run up to this derby have heightened the pressure because there will be no shortage of people ready to throw them back in their faces if the game is lost.
That is the nature of the rivalry and both surely know that so it shows an admirable confidence in the project at Ibrox, even if it is a risky strategy.
Dominance at the top of Scottish football won’t be decided on the weight of who lifts the trophy this weekend, but it will be used as a measuring stick either way for the direction of travel after standards undoubtedly slipped domestically under Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
Steven Gerrard, with Beale on his staff, had wrestled Rangers back to the top after years in the wilderness and now the latter has returned to restore that standing.
He’s done close to everything he set out to do so far, barring a draw in the one Old Firm he has taken charge of, in a game where he could have felt hard done by not to take all three points.
Based on where the club was when Gerrard took Beale with him to Aston Villa, and the record since the manager came back, there is some logic to Sakala’s view but it will need to be proven on the pitch and this final is a big opportunity to do that.
In other Rangers news, a contract has already been signed for an in-demand attacking player to join the club.