Alan Stubbs refuses to make Rangers title favourites despite Celtic opportunity missed
Celtic are still title favourites despite their failure to capitalise on the opportunity handed to them by Rangers losing this weekend, according to Alan Stubbs.
The former Hoops defender said that the current two point Gers lead with nine games remaining is as close as the blue half of Glasgow has been to a league title in “a long time”, so Brendan Rodgers’ side have the edge because they’ve done it more recently.
He pointed to the pressure being on Philippe Clement and his players during the run-in and suggested the final outcome is some way off.
Stubbs said, via PLZ Soccer: “I think it’s on a knife-edge, I really do. People will say this is because of my ties with Celtic but I still do think Celtic are slight favourites.
“They’ve been there, seen it, and done it. From an experience point of view I think this is quite new, and this is as close as Rangers have been for a long time so it’s going to be interesting to see how they deal with that pressure.”
The ex-Bolton and Everton man pointed to tight title races he was involved in and added: “This title is not going to be won until the very end I don’t think. I think it’s going to go to the last couple of games.”
Rangers hold narrow edge in title race at three-quarter stage of SPFL season
Unless one side opens up a gap that would take two or three results to close it will be impossible to determine how the season will end.
Regardless of the shock home defeat to Motherwell it is still probably Rangers who have the momentum since Clement has closed just such a gap since he took over from Michael Beale and forced his side ahead.
Had Celtic beaten Hearts and gone back top then they would be in the ascendency but the fact that have dropped points three times since the start of February suggests they are struggling with the pressure as much as anyone, and there are still enough players in this side who have won the league for it not to be that new.
Stubbs is probably right that it will go down close to the wire, and if the Gers are unable to lift the trophy at the end of the season it will undoubtedly be a huge disappointment.
Clement hasn’t been perfect but he can point to a staggering set of injury set backs that have never cleared up throughout his time at Ibrox, with the blows to Oscar Cortes and Ross McCausland just the latest.
And considering where the campaign looked to be headed at the point when Beale was sacked most Rangers supporters would have taken top spot at this stage, even allowing for the poor performance against Motherwell.
In other Rangers news, a new Lawrence Shankland transfer verdict was issued live on Sky Sports after the latest developments.
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