Martin O’Neill: Celtic ‘should’ win SPFL title after ‘bad couple of days’ for Rangers
Celtic “should” go on to win the title following Rangers’ “bad couple of days”, according to Martin O’Neill.
As quoted by FootballScotland (7 September), the former Hoops boss suggested that the Gers’ early season struggles, including failure to qualify for the Champions League group stage and the Old Firm defeat, may be enough for Celtic to clinch the title.
O’Neill also noted that Rangers’ failure to reach the UCL group stages was bad for their “prestige” and financially, while the Gers sit four points adrift of top-of-the-table Celtic after four matches.
Speaking with Ladbrokes Fanzone, O’Neill said: “As for Rangers, what a bad couple of days for them — getting knocked out of Champions League qualifying in terms of prestige is bad enough. But also the finance side of things, it’s a really huge blow to them.
“Celtic have the upper hand over them in that respect, and they are four points clear of Rangers in the league. Brendan should be able to go on and win that title now, you would expect.”
Hill to climb
Rangers and Michael Beale have a steep hill to climb if they want to prove O’Neill wrong.
However, it is still very early in the season and there is plenty of time for Beale to change his fortunes at Ibrox and mount a comeback in the league.
With Celtic having their UCL group stage to contend with, facing off against Atletico Madrid, Feyenoord and Lazio, Beale will hope the Hoops drop points in the league amid their much tougher European fixtures.
Celtic themselves haven’t had the greatest start to the season, and the Old Firm derby win for Brendan Rodgers has just done enough to take some pressure off the Hoops boss.
Rodgers’ side dropped points to St Johnstone in a 0-0 draw in the league after being knocked out of the Scottish Cup by Kilmarnock, so there are plenty of weaknesses at Celtic Park for Beale to have some hope that they will drop more points this season and close the gap.
However, Beale will have to bring the points back to Ibrox each week if he wants to catch up with Celtic. Hope is not lost yet.
In other Rangers news, Derek Ferguson has revealed the one thing Beale must do to save his job.