Celtic, Rangers Suffer Early Season Wobbles

And now, Tuesday’s 3-1 home loss to Club Brugge in the Champions’ League playoff round has the collective heart rate in and around Ibrox at dangerously high levels. To be fair, the Belgians are hardly lightweights.

“I understand the intensity and emotion here but it can’t change the way we work and become a weight around the players necks,” Martin told the media after that match. “I came to this club knowing it wasn’t going to be easy or a quick fix. I hope we’ll be judged in May and by then we’ll be in a really good place and winning stuff.” He may not get the luxury of that much time.

Meanwhile, in Glasgow’s East End, a segment of the Celtic support is at wit’s end over what they see as a relative lack of transfer activity during the summer window, which has about two weeks to go.

This despite the fact the Hoops have brought in SEVEN new players already this summer, including returning hero Kieran Tierney (granted, on a free).

None have been “big names,” mind, but the Parkhead side haven’t swum in those waters in some time. The modus operandi most of this century so far has been to sign younger players—like Swede Benjamin Nygren and Japanese international Shin Yamada, two of the six new recruits—and develop them before selling them on at a significant profit. Which is exactly what they have done with the likes of Kyogo last January and Nicolas Kuhn last month.

The problem, in some supporters’ eyes, is that these two players specifically haven’t been adequately replaced—and the feeling is that this disconnect may push manager Brendan Rodgers out the door when his contract expires at the end of the season.

“What I want to do is make the team the very best that we can, and I’m hoping that by the end of the window that we can be that,” the Irishman told the media this week. “As a football manager and coach, I would want it now because I’m going into games here that mean everything for this club going forward. But if we don’t have it in the building now, then we have to work with what’s here.”

Should the Hoops fail to qualify for the Champions’ League—and that’s very much an open question after a 0-0 draw against Kairat at Celtic Park Wednesday in the first leg of the playoff—there will be a number of supporters crying, “I told you so.” (They were saying much worse in the terraces on Wednesday.)

And should ’Gers also not qualify it will only hurt the European fortunes for future Scottish champions and runners-up.

In the all-important coefficient rankings, Scotland are currently 17^th, just behind Switzerland and Austria. The ideal placing is 15^th or higher, which would mean future domestic champions would automatically qualify for Europe’s top tournament.

However, currently at 15^th, Austria are 2.8 points ahead of Scotland, and for Celtic or Rangers to make up that gap, they would need to win seven league-phase matches in the 2025-26 Champions’ League.

A tall order to be sure. And if it can’t be achieved, in 2027-28, the Premiership champions would have to face three Champions’ League qualifiers instead of the current one.

It may be time to panic after all.