While Celtic looks to the future as the blueprint for success, the Ibrox club continues to look at the past for theirs

When you go from being dominant, to competitive, to liquidation, and then to trying to emulate your predecessor by pretending to be that very club, it’s inevitable you will look at their successes as the blueprint for yours.

However, it’s that very mentality that has caused the current entity playing out of Ibrox to manage a paltry return of just 3 trophies during their 12 year existence.

Bear in mind in all of this, of course, that this club has the biggest wage bill in Scottish football.

They’re not exactly getting a bang for their buck, are they?

You see, what killed the previous club was it’s desperation to keep up with Celtic.

And a few days ago, in my article on the number 55, I described how the hubris of the current club has ultimately been their downfall.

The mentality and belief that they had what it took to beat us, and win the 2016/17 title, upon entering the top flight for the first time, is the very reason they find themselves in a state of perpetual stasis.

Never really moving forward.

But always looking back.

Desperately trying to emulate something that was in reality, a mirage.

Something that consisted of smoke and mirrors.

Successes that were built on foundations of sand.

But successes they cling to nonetheless.

Today, in the Record, we have relatively unknown Ibrox legend, Brian McClean, reneging us on the recipe for success, and how the current entity needs characters like those which filled the ranks of Alex McLeish’s EBT Superstars.

Now, I’ve no doubt all of the players mentioned in the article were good players.

Great guys to learn from.

And so ruthless that they’d “tackle their granny to win three points”, as McLean so eloquently put it.

However, unlike Celtic, these players were all players Rangers 1872 could not afford.

Then manager, Alex Mcleish admitted openly that they would never have been able to compete with Celtic if they hadn’t cheated, and avoided paying the taxes Celtic, and every other club in Scotland paid diligently to Her Majesty’s revenue and customs.

Tore Andre, Barry Ferguson, Ronald de Boer, Alex Rae, Stefan Klos and Bob Malcolm were all well looked after in the EBT tax scam.

While every other club they played in Scotland duly paid their Income Tax and National Insurance on time and in full.

McClean talks about how much the Ibrox club won during that period, which still rankles with every Celtic fan out there.

Since we now know that every trophy won during that period was won illegally, and under false pretences.

However, no season enrages Celtic fans more than the 2002/03 season.

Each and every one of us is bitter to this day due to the way Rangers 1872 secured that title.

I don’t have the time or the inclination today to write a blow by blow of what happened in that season.

But for those of you who aren’t aware of it, I wrote a big article on it on my old website back in 2021.

You can access it here.

Alex McLeish openly admitted that Rangers 1872 had to cheat to compete with Celtic.

Here’s what he said in relation to the 2002/03 season:

You saw how close it was in terms of winning the Championship. There was a goal in it. We were so level it wasn’t true. If we didn’t pay the same kind of money Celtic were paying their players we would have been behind them.

That statement would have made sense if they were able to afford to pay the same kind of money.

The fact of the matter was they couldn’t.

Which is why they had to employ the EBT scheme to be able to afford these players.

The majority of the players who took to the field for Rangers 1872 during the 2002/03 season, were all EBT recipients.

Including all of those that Brian McClean refers to in the article in today’s Record.

It’s amazing the way people are just expected to forget about this period in Scottish football.

What’s even more amazing is how we’re expected to swallow the players who willingly accepted EBT’s being feted as heroes of the past.

In this article, McClean is basically ramming it down our throats that the current Ibrox side should emulate a bunch of cheats in order to be successful.

And this is why they will never compete with Celtic.

Celtic, as a club, steamrolls it’s way to success, because it never looks at the past as a blueprint for success.

Our club is always living in the moments of the present, and always looking to the future to become bigger, and better.

While we may have a board that seems to hold the club back, the playing squad and the manager are always looking to take us forward.

They are always looking at the next game, the next challenge.

It is rare that you see an ex-Celt in the papers talking about the past.

But it’s all you seem to see when it comes to the Ibrox side.

This is because it’s all they have to cling to.

The headline in the article featuring McLean states this:

What R*****s MUST bring to Ibrox in transfer window as dressing room ‘presence’ a non negotiable

The Ibrox club can’t afford to bring top class players to the club.

This is why we have to read about what it was like when they could.

When they actually couldn’t.

While the EBT era is a time they would all like to airbrush out of history, it’s up to us to ensure it is never forgotten.

That’s why when I see articles like today, and people like McLean acting like it never happened, it really maddens me.

It also maddens me the way the SMSM is complicit in this.

In reality, the only thing we can keep doing as club is winning.

This will force them to continue to live in the past.

Desperately trying to seek the formula for success.

The ironic thing here is that very formula they look at, is the one that brought about their destruction.

It’s a never ending vicious cycle for them.

And it’s up to us to keep them in that vicious cycle.