Russell Martin Sent Celtic Reality Check Before Rangers Arrival

The long-time rivalry between Celtic and Rangers is one that has been notably tense. After the Ibrox club ended up being liquidated in 2012, things started to heavily favour the Hoops in the grand scheme of things, as the Scottish side has taken a firm hold on the Scottish Premiership and run away with it for many years now.

This has made for quite the insurmountable gap between Celtic and, frankly, the rest of the league. With the amount of talent the Hoops have been able to amass in recent seasons, they stand in a league of their own at the top, and are now going up against European giants like Bayern Munich and holding their own in the UEFA Champions League.

The question becomes, how long is this lead going to be sustained, or rather, how long is it going to take one of the other clubs in the SPFL to catch up? Rory Loy, who played for Rangers, had quite a bit to say in a recent discussion surrounding this very topic.

What Did Rory Loy Have to Say Regarding the Gap Between Celtic and Rangers?

In a recent discussion on the Scottish Football Podcast, Loy would say the following (quote transcribed by Celts Are Here): “My concern if I was a Rangers fan would be that these managers want to come in and try out-football Brendan Rodgers and Celtic.

“That is going to be extremely difficult to do in a very short space of time. Ange Postecoglou did do it. But he’s the exception to the rule in my opinion.

“Whoever comes in is going to have to come in and win games of football. People underestimate flipping between this formation and that formation. It takes a lot of work, time and effort.

“Six weeks of pre-season go into building what we want to play and whoever comes in is going to have to do that in six weeks or the longer it takes, less and less. And try and come in and play a style of football.

“In my opinion Russell Martin and Davide Ancelotti will want to play the ball on the ground and pop it around.

“At this moment in time, Rangers are nowhere near at the stage of competing against Celtic in that department."

Loy is pretty spot on in most of his comments here, Rangers are in a position where competing with Celtic is going to take quite a bit more than one season.

While it is possible they make things more competitive, it would be difficult to believe they could take on that monumental of a task in just one transfer window.

Of course, Postecoglou did something similar with Celtic but that was a rare case. And as the Australian's Europa League success with Tottenham Hotspur shows, he always wins things. The same can't be said about Martin.