Hold on to your hats, it coming again. If you have enough time and reserve to contain your excitement, make sure you are prepared for ‘The Battle of Britain’!! Dun dun duhhh!!
Straight off the bat, I can totally understand that this is a big deal for Rangers, in the same way that Celtic playing at Anfield was a big deal for those concerned. But I can’t be the only person who thinks these ‘battles’ are more one-sided than we are made to believe.
The gulf in class between the Scottish league and the Premier League is as big as it has ever been. In the fourteen Anglo-Scottish meetings in Europe’s Premier competition, Scottish teams have triumphed on only five, four of which were against the same club, Leeds. Maybe when Celtic had Henrik Larsson and John Hartson up front, and boasted an impressive home record in European competition, the matches bore a closer resemblance to a battle. With all the fans that Rangers will bring this week to Old Trafford, there may be a bit extra spice, but I am fully expecting Rangers to be turned over, in a big way. United may have thrown away a two goal lead at Goodison on Saturday, but only hours before Rangers had only just mamnaged to squeak past Hamilton Academicals (all due respect of course) and really did not deserve to take home three points.
Walter Smith has done sterling work considering the financial restrictions that he is limited to concerning transfer fees, but any eleven he can field this week will be far weaker than the opponents they are up against. Both Celtic and Rangers have consistently struggled in Europe and getting beyond the group stage will this year, as with every year, be incredibly unlikely. If this game was at Ibrox I might soften my stance, but even then, I can’t see 40-year-old David Weir handling Rooney, Berbatov, Giggs etc. In the same way I can’t picture James Beattie – who has struggled to hold down a first team place in any Premeir League team since leaving Southampton – giving Nemanja Vidic a big test.
This matchup is another example of hyperbole; every game has to try and be sold as something. Super Sunday, Judgement Day, Relegation Rumble, Sixteenth place Showdown, Mid-table Meeting, and on and on. Particularly if other fixtures don’t throw up any better connections; Chelsea’s trip to MSK Zilina is not going to create the same hype, that is a given. But I’d like to think that most football fans are intelligent enough not to have to be patronised into believing that we are set for a contest between two closely matched teams, in which the result could go either way. If United don’t win the game, it should be seen as a huge failure.
Both in the long term, and the short, there has been a gradual decline in the standard of the Scottish domestic game. The places awarded for European competitions have diminished, the best players have moved on, and the ability to attract players to join on long-term contracts is harder than ever. Celtic and Rangers are still massive clubs, steeped in history, but their fans will be the first to admit that they are not the forces they once were. I hope I am proved wrong, and what we see at Old Trafford is indeed a ‘battle’ in the greatest sense of the word, somehow though, I can’t see it materialising.
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