Celtic in pre-season turmoil, advantage Rangers already for 2023/24 Scottish Premiership
Celtic’s pre-season arrangements appear to be up in the air – and that could hand Rangers an advantage as they look to make a quick start next season.
Celtic have now claimed back-to-back Scottish Premiership titles since Rangers last lifted the trophy in 2021 and the Gers will be keen to stop the Hoops from making it three in a row.
Therefore Michaele Beale’s side will be looking for every advantage they can get as they prepare for next season’s title race and may have been handed an unlikely one in the form of disruption to Celtic’s pre-season plans.
According to the Express and Star (29 June), billionaire-owned Premier League side Wolves have pulled out of their scheduled pre-season tour to South Korea where they were set to take on Celtic and Italian side Roma.
The club were meant to arrive for their first-ever visit to the country at the end of July but have now pulled out, claiming numerous “financial and logistical obligations” have not been upheld by the tour’s promoters Stadium X/USG.
Tickets were yet to be put on sale for the matches and now Roma are believed to have also backed out of the trip.
While this may seem fairly insignificant at first glance, a second look suggests this is brilliant news for Rangers.
A positive pre-season is important for players to get back to match fitness and therefore be ready to hit the ground running when the new season gets underway. With these latest developments, this might now prove difficult for Celtic.
They will now be left with little time to make alternative arrangements and schedule friendlies in order to get themselves prepared. These pre-season matches have even more importance this year with Brendan Rodgers returning to the club.
Rodgers will need some time and opportunities to assess his squad and become familiar with his new players and it might now be tricky to do that as they are left scrambling to find new opponents ahead of the Scottish Premier League getting underway at the beginning of August.
Advantage Rangers?
In other Rangers news, another first-team signing is close to completion.