Scotland’s Old Firm has dropped the ball

The other day, January 2, was the fiftieth anniversary of the Ibrox disaster when sixty-six people, half of them teenagers, were killed on a stairway as they hurried to leave the ground. It was the only “Old Firm” match I have ever attended and, going straight from Ibrox to Queen Street station to catch a train to Aberdeen, I knew nothing of the disaster till I got to Aberdeen and a taxi driver there said, “terrible what happened at Ibrox, wasn’t it ?” I hope I refrained from saying it wasn’t much of a match, though I have often claimed I did so.

Except for brief periods when other teams have been strong – Hibs and Hearts in the late forties and fifties, Aberdeen and Dundee United in the eighties, Rangers and Celtic have always dominated Scottish football, and both clubs have had fans all over the country – several of the teenagers killed that second of January came from Fife.

As a boy, I watched Rangers with awe when they came to play Aberdeen at Pittodrie, and the ground was packed, more than 40,000. That Rangers team had a swagger that spoke of invincibility. Their defence was known as the Iron Curtain, and they could field an eleven, all of whom had been capped for Scotland: Brown, Young, Shaw McColl, Woodburn, Cox – the names of the Iron Curtain are securely locked in my memory.

Fifty years ago, Rangers and Celtic could still regard themselves as the equals of any English club. There was good reason to do so. In 1967 Celtic, after all, were the first British side to win the European Cup while Rangers won the European Cup-winners Cup a couple of years later.

Even though the maximum permissible wage had been declared illegal in the early 60s, there was then little reason for star players to leave Rangers or Celtic for an English club, though it wouldn’t be long till this changed.

So the two clubs of the Old Firm could still regard themselves as belonging by right to the elite of British and European football. Things are different now, though both clubs might deny it.

Rangers indeed almost disappeared, beset by financial troubles and harassed by the Inland Revenue, Their misdemeanours saw them relegated to the lowest division of the Scottish Football League, and it has taken them ears to recover.

Nevertheless, their mindset remained the same. A few years ago, when the then manager of Aberdeen, Derek McInnes, turned down an offer to manage Rangers, the club with characteristic arrogance declared that he wasn’t perhaps ready to manage a big club and offered the job instead to the former Liverpool captain Stevie Gerrard.

He did well, and last year led Rangers to the Scottish Premiership title, ending Celtic’s almost decade-long run of titles. But now it seems that for Gerrard, Rangers aren’t the big club they think they are. He has departed to take charge of Aston Villa.

Villa is of course a club with a long and distinguished history, but it is also one that has more often struggled in the Premiership than challenging for honours. No doubt Gerrard believes he can change this. He certainly has the opportunity to do so. What is clear is that Rangers has never been more than a stepping-stone for him.

This week offered another example of Rangers’ wilting ambition. The club has just sold its outstanding young player Nathan Paterson to struggling Everton for a fee reputed to be £14 million and claim that, with an eye on the market, this is a good deal. No doubt it is financially, but when a club sells its brightest young star, it can’t credibly claim to be anything but second-rate.

Of course, Rangers and Celtic still dominate Scottish football and will continue to do so. But they aren’t what they were, and their boasts now have an empty ring. Celtic indeed passed on their best young Scottish player, Kierin Tierney, to Arsenal a couple of years ago for even more than Rangers have got for Nathan Patterson, and are scrambling about in the international market, now signing three Japanese players to add to the star one they already have.

It’s a long way from Jock Stein’s European Cup heroes, all of whom were born in or around Glasgow. In one respect, things have improved. The sectarianism that was a blot on both clubs’ record, and indeed on the game in Scotland, may not have been eradicated, but it has been shunted away into the background.

Celtic’s Japanese recruits won’t be expected to sing Irish rebel songs or lift a glass to the IRA, and Rangers’ most popular anthem, “The Sash”, recalling the Protestant King Billy’s 1689 victory over the Catholic James VII & II with its proud memory of “wading deep in Fenian blood” can’t now be sung with impunity at club or supporters dinners.

But in the footballing sense, both clubs have fallen from their high estate. They are still the best in Scotland but they are falling short of their English competitors south of the Border.