Was Celtic’s title win last season the one that finally broke the Ibrox side?

As I examine all of the articles in the SMSM of late surrounding the Ibrox operation, there seems to be a new found element of desperation in them.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen so much hype in relation to players nobody had heard of before they arrived in Glasgow.

Hugh Keevins attempted to give us a revelation last Sunday, when he pointed out that the Ibrox side were trying to emulate our signing policy of buying cheap, and selling big.

It wasn’t so much a revelation, but something every man and his dog knew already.

There is, however, one fundamental difference in Celtic’s signing policy, and that of the Ibrox side which we’re seeing today.

I’m going to use last year’s summer transfer window as an example.

You see, when you look at the majority of the players that came to Celtic last season, while most could be labelled as projects, a lot of them had a decent level of first team football at their respective clubs.

Even Gustaf Lagerbielke had played regular first team football with Elfsborg, and Västerås in the Swedish top and second tiers.

He was also capped by the Swedish national side.

Luis Palma had 41 appearances for Aris Thessaloniki under his belt, and several appearances with the Honduran national side.

Now, I’m not going to give the stats of every player we signed last summer.

But the point I’m making is that these players, while some of them failed to make the grade, all had a decent level of first team football before joining Celtic.

None of them received the kind of write ups we’re seeing in the media today in relation to the latest raft of recruits and potential recruits arriving at Ibrox.

Clinton Nsiala had one first team appearance with AC Milan.

He is valued at around £75k.

Yet, Andrew Newport subjected us to a feature length article on what a world beater he could be.

Could be, being the operative words here.

There is huge hype in the media in relation to the impending arrival of Moroccan, Hamza Igamane, a player who doesn’t even have the customary Wikipedia page when you look him up.

Apparently, he will cost the club £1.7 million.

I had to do an article on it yesterday, simply because it was so ridiculous.

Michael Gannon really outdid himself with that one.

Compare and contrast these kinds of signings to last summer’s transfer dealings at Ibrox.

Danilo came in for £5 million.

Cyriel Dessers came in for £4.5 million.

The Ibrox side were gearing up for a serious attempt at wrenching the title from us.

And at one point, it looked like they might have pulled it off.

In the end, it didn’t come to pass.

Their desperation to secure that Champions League money, and thus pose a real challenge to us, became too much for them in the end.

And as serial losers are wont to do, they serially lost.

The pressure was too much for them.

So, in the headline of this article, I posed the question, has the failure to win last season’s title finally broken them?

Well, the early indications in the transfer market are that it has.

It’s beginning to look like there is a serious dearth of funds at Ibrox.

You only have to look at the scandalous price increases in merchandise and season tickets over there to see that something has gone seriously wrong.

Strips are now over £100.

Manchester City and Manchester United are not even charging this much for their kits.

The new Celtic home kit, with long sleeves, is retailing at around £70.

Season tickets have gone up by 10%.

As I alluded to earlier, there seems to be an air of desperation around everything Ibrox at the moment.

The SMSM are in overdrive.

It has to be said, they are really toeing the party line.

Expect another huge feelgood story with the signing of Connor Barron imminent today.

The Ibrox side have beaten no less than 6 other clubs to his signing.

Hellas Verona, and Bologna being two of the clubs named that showed interest in him.

When I looked at the news involving both clubs, there is zero mention of interest in Barron.

So I’d be kind of interested in seeing where the Record got their info regarding the Serie A clubs.

The Plymouth, Stoke, Cardiff, and Swansea links are legitimate.

But, as I said, this one will be met with huge fanfare once it’s signed, sealed, and delivered.

Note that this move has also been done on the cheap, in fact, a transfer fee hasn’t been mentioned:

A deal is likely to get over the line before the Rangers return to pre-season training on Monday. The Dons would be due have been due around £525,000 in training compensation if he was to move outside Scotland – but a switch to the Light Blues means the club Scottish sides will have to agree compensation or face a tribunal stepping in to determine a fee.

No doubt the fee will be “undisclosed”.

Spending to date has been minimal.

In fact, the Ibrox club has not spent as much thus far as they spent last season on Cyriel Dessers, on all four signings combined.

Combine this with the completely overhyped reports on their signings, and it all adds up to serious cash flow issues.

Put simply, Philippe Clement has been given a very limited transfer budget to work with.

And so far, it would appear he’s been working well within the constraints of the budget supplied.

It’s up to the media to portray him as some kind of genius in this process, along with his Assistant, Nils Koppen.

Every season recently has been seen as a season that would be a turning point.

After their solitary title win in 2021, they were expected to make the Champions League and secure the funds that go with that.

That would then allow them to keep their foot on down and out Celtic’s throat.

That didn’t happen, thanks to pesky Jon Dahl Tomasson, and the old club’s nemesis, Malmö FF.

Or Malmeuh, as Tomasson pronounced it.

Funny guy Tomasson.

Stevie G knew the house of cards was about to cave in, so he ran south to run Aston Villa into the ground.

Along came Gio van Bronckhorst, and for while there, it looked like the glory days were coming back.

Pipped at the post for the title by plucky unknown newcomer, Ange Postecoglou, van Bronckhorst still managed to get the Ibrox side to a European final, which they lost on penalties.

He did manage to win the Scottish Cup as a consolation, but after a poor start to the 22/23 season, affable Gio was given the boot.

In 2022, genius Michael Beale arrived, but he “inherited the 8 point gap”, so there wasn’t much he was going to be able to do.

After securing summer bragging rights, and then the close season cup, Beale, along with his big money signings, was going to put Celtic in their place.

But things didn’t go according to plan, and then, Belgian messiah Philippe Clement arrived.

He inherited a 7 point gap.

But he gave it a right good go, and to be fair, he almost caught Celtic.

He even took his charges to the top of the Premiership for a short stay.

Qualification for the new format Champions League was the ultimate goal.

Get to the promised land, and they could put Celtic in their place.

But the pressure was too much in the end, and the rest is history.

Now, without those ever elusive “Champions Leagues monies”, it looks like the well may finally be running dry.

For a club who is terrified of us matching the magic number “55”, there doesn’t seem to be any signal of intent in the transfer market to stop the inevitable.

Maybe John Bennett has realised that 55 is just a bullshit number, after all.

From a campaign created by the biggest bullshitter of them all, Dave King.

Perhaps Bennett and the rest of the board have grown tired of throwing good money after bad to no avail.

There has to come a point when enough, is enough.

The current whimperings in the transfer market would indicate that that time is at hand.

Whimperings that the SMSM have been tasked with turning into Lion’s roars.

Unless, of course, a big splurge is coming down the line?

But based on the way things have started, it looks unlikely.

Have we finally broken them?

Will securing “55” next season, and also killing that myth keep them as also rans for the foreseeable?

We have been in this position a few times before.

Where we have had our boot on their throat.

But we never took advantage of it.

Brendan Rodgers needs to make this transfer window count.

It’s that simple really.

The rest depends on how much the blue pound is really valued.

And you all know who loves that.

Interesting times ahead…