Although Celtic supporters could hardly raise a note against Aberdeen, the Rangers manager is lifting the roof around the city.
During the Remembrance Day minute of silence, they created more noise than they did in the 48 minutes that followed.
To be honest, they didn’t even inform the tourists that they were there until they were enraged about an attack on their Japanese talisman. And that very well sums up the ridiculous situation that Celtic have found themselves in, despite the fact that Brendan Rodgers and his team defeated Aberdeen by six goals yesterday to take back an eight-point lead atop the table.
It was only a few short weeks ago when Rangers were in full self-imposition mode while Michael Beale was unraveling against the backdrop of a full-scale revolt in the Ibrox stands. So, even by Scottish football’s highly fickle standards, it seems truly remarkable that this feeling of simmering unrest and disconnect has shifted so quickly and decanted itself across the city.
Yes, Rodgers and his players looked fully focussed and highly motivated as they shook off the cobwebs of another Champions League hangover by dispatching the Dons with some considerable style and attacking flair. That it took them just 15 minutes to storm into an unassailable two goal lead was testament to the professional manner in which they went about their work in the first half and indicative of their complete and utter superiority.
On better days – or at least in less chaotic times – an opening quarter of an hour of such an explosive nature would have raised the roof in Glasgow’s east end. On Sunday, it hardly raised a whimper.
And that’s the unfortunate manifestation of an ongoing dispute between the club and its own delinquent hard core support which might soon become a dangerous distraction. Because Celtic’s players cannot be expected to continue to operate with such zest and energy indefinitely, when it feels as if their own supporters aren’t all that fussed one way or the other.
It was no surprise that a routine win was turning into a bit of a slog before the flashpoint with Kyogo Furuhashi which relit Celtic’s fire and opened the floodgates late on. Yes, the banning of the Green Brigade has caused this drastic drop off in atmosphere but an festering row with a bunch of unruly renegades shouldn’t be allowed to overshadow what really matters to the majority of Celtic’s people. Which is surely, watching their team win football matches.
That they reacted so angrily to the horrible clash of heads which saw Slobodan Rubezic wiping out Kyogo and leaving him in a motionless heap, was a sign of how deeply they do care for the plight of this team and the wellbeing of its star performers in particular. And yet another reminder that the role of the video assistant referee in Scottish football is becoming almost impossible to fathom.
It shouldn’t have required graphic slow motion replays for the officials to work out that Rubezic’s over aggression had endangered the safety of an opponent. Not when the opponent in question was lying sparked out on the ground. But the Montenegrin escaped with a yellow card even though the TV pictures made his actions seem even more reckless and despite the fact that Kyogo had to be helped off the field looking like he’d just been knocked into the middle of next week.
When the noise levels were finally raised Celtic regained some of their early first half rhythm and impetus and bagged themselves four more goals before it was over in an emphatic response to a 2-0 Rangers victory at Livingston earlier in the day. For Philippe Clement yesterday’s road trip across the M8 was about nothing more than getting in and out of West Lothian without making a meal of it at the Spaghetti-had. And, in that respect, it was a case of a job well done even if the 90 minutes might have felt like making his eyes bleed.
Having made his feelings perfectly clear on plastic pitches – he’d gladly roll them up and stick them in the nearest available skip – this was the kind of instantly forgettable contest which he most probably expected it to be. Not for the first time, he was absolutely spot on.
Yes, there were moments of controversy and more reason to wonder what the point is in VAR when it quite clearly can’t be used properly, with youngster Ross McCausland both the victim and the beneficiary of two botched calls.
The winger went down to win a first half penalty when it looked like he’d been knocked over by a gust of wind. That James Tavernier missed from the spot felt like an act of justice.
But McCausland was then denied what would have been a spectacular first senior goal all because of a foul by Abdallah Sima which was neither clear nor obvious no matter from how many angles it was viewed.
But even though the game itself was a hard watch, a 2-0 victory means that’s six wins out of seven now for the Belgian boss and the more these numbers stack up the less this upturn can be put down to some sort of freakish quirk of fate.
Since his arrival it’s been almost obligatory to add the words ‘it’s still early days’ when analysing or attempting to quantify the improvement he has made to a team which was in a state of absolute disarray under the last man. But more and more, Clement is looking like the real deal. Early days or not.
Big Phil has been busy filling his boots with SPFL points while closing in on the first prize of the season, which will be handed out at Hampden next month after the Viaplay Cup Final.
Perhaps most importantly of all, is the transformation in the relationship between this side and its own supporters, who were baying for the blood of Beale and his players not all that long ago. In sharp contrast to the public library at Parkhead right now, the mood music around Clement’s repair job is cranking up in volume with each passing week.
Pretty soon Celtic may begin to feel the noise coming from the other side of the garden fence unless they get back to making some of their own.
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