Ferguson has made himself a strong contender for the Ibrox job after his win against Celtic, but the bubble will burst, its a certainty
Eric Knott 
(Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
After winning at Celtic Park last Sunday, Barry Ferguson has definitely made himself a contender for the Ibrox gig on a full time basis.
If he has any sense, he’d turn it down and walk away into the sunset knowing he’d done himself proud as interim manager.
But he won’t, and if he’s offered the job on permanent basis, he’ll take it.
If and when he does, it will be the beginning of the end for him.
Right now, his Ibrox players are riding on his real Raynjurz motivation and adrenalin, and yes, he outclassed a master tactician in Brendan Rodgers last Sunday.
Was he lucky?
To some degree yes.
If Hamza Igamane had been punished correctly for his horrendous foul on Yang, then there may have be a totally different outcome.
But with John Beaton in the VAR room, that was never going to happen.
The simple fact is they deserved to win the game, regardless of that fact, much and all as it pains me to say it.
They wanted it more.
And Ferguson can take full credit for instilling that want in them.
To a degree, the way his team played was a reflection of what he wants for the Ibrox side.
He wants his teams to play like he did.
Full of aggression and anger, and they did exactly that last Sunday.
But that kind of motivation can only carry you along for so long, because the reality is that Ferguson is no master tactician.
If there was one thing Brendan Rodgers was right about, it was the fact that Ferguson has not changed much at all in terms of how he sets his sides up tactically in comparison to the way Philippe Clement did.
Yes, he has tweaked his formation slightly from Clement’s 4-2-3-1 to a 3-4-1-2, but the style of play has not altered much at all.
If you look at the way he approached the game, it is definitely evident that he watched the video of their 3-0 win last January.
Ferguson looked at Celtic’s weak areas in that game, and he must have been rubbing his hands with glee when he realised both McGregor and Trusty would be missing.
He knew that Hatate was a weak link, and once again, aside from his goal and his shot which produced a decent save from Butland, he was largely ineffective in the game.
The Ibrox players nullified any threat he might have been capable of.
It’s hard to understand why Rodgers approached the game the way he did.
Only he knows how it was possible for Celtic to perform worse than they did at Ibrox in January.
But a big factor in all of it was the loss of his captain and midfield general, Callum McGregor.
Besides his ability to control the game from central midfield, McGregor also knows how motivate the Celtic players around him in the right way.
That was sadly lacking last Sunday.
But at this point, there is no point in going over the course any more.
What’s done is done.
We have to have faith that Rodgers will learn from this, and that we rock up to Ibrox next month with a full strength squad and show Ferguson and his side exactly what we’re capable of.
I stated in the article headline that the bubble will burst for Ferguson, but the question is, when exactly will it burst?
The Ibrox side will be riding high after beating us and knocking Fenerbahce out of the Europa League to line up a quarter final tie with la Liga side, Athletic Bilbao.
Athletic are riding high in La Liga, and although it’s highly unlikely, they could still mathematically win the La Liga title.
They are 8 points behind joint leaders Barcelona and Real Madrid.
In reality, they probably have as much chance of winning the title as the Ibrox side have of winning the Scottish Premiership.
However, they are not a side like Fenerbahce.
Their manager, Ernesto Valverde, has vast managerial experience, with clubs such as Barcelona, Espanyol, Villareal and Valencia on his CV, amongst others.
He is a shrewd tactician, and he has two La Liga titles to his name, both won during his time at Barcelona from 2017 to 2020.
Valverde is the man who will burst Barry Ferguson’s bubble.
Because make no mistake, his side will not falter against the tactics or players Barry Ferguson will put out against him.
I expect Valverde to inflict a serious defeat on the Ibrox side, and in doing so, he will bring Ferguson crashing back down to earth.
The first leg will be played at Ibrox on the 10th of April, with the second leg being played the following Thursday on the 17th.
The Basque club have a strong connection and relationship with Celtic, and it will be fitting that they will probably be the side to knock them out of this season’s Europa League.
I expect them to hold their own at Ibrox, and then inflict a heavy defeat on the Govan side at their own ground.
Brendan Rodgers would do well to examine how Bilbao achieve that, should they do it.
It will pave the way for him to put in the performance we’re expecting from him when we meet the Ibrox side again.
So while Ferguson is riding on the crest of a wave at the moment, it is inevitable it will come to an end sooner or later.
It always does at Ibrox.
And when it does, we’ll be there to prove that we will remain the dominant side in Scottish football.
They believe that trebles in Scotland are meaningless.
Well, we’ll see how meaningful a Europa League quarter-final knockout is for them.
And then what happens afterward.
As we said in the podcast, we give him 8 months max if he lands the role on a full-time basis.
You can hold me to that.
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Generally agree but Calmac played in the league cup final and at Ibrokes at new year and we were outplayed in both games. Warning signs were there in last season’s Scottish cup final.
The rangers have scored 9 goals against us in 3 matches league cup final Ibrox Jan and now park head we have scored 5 so no fluke. We have a weak midfield not physical enough and left full back just hope Tierney stays injury free the polish centre half looks a very good player just needs games I don’t understand what Rodgers problem is not playing him I think he is better than trust.
This is not about Ferguson’s Managerial ability or his players , this is about celtic management decision to sell Kyogo and not replacing him , and forcing our manager to play Maeda as striker and weaken the left wing , it’s also now apparent that a long term replacement for McGregor is a priority, investment in the summer will be the first step and an extension to the managers contract a must , the answer is in celtics own hands.
Eric I agree with Jamie G that CalMac played in the two previous derbies the one at Ipox and the League Cup Final and we lost one and won the final on penalties. The signs aren’t good at the moment and we don’t look like changing things if I’m being honest, Hatate has been invisible most of the season and if he wants a move he’ll need to improve dramatically, he’s been garbage for about a season now and he looks lazy and uninterested. On Sunday he wasn’t alone and Daizen and Nawrocki are the only two players that get pass marks, big Maik was immense considering he’s played 23 minutes all season. Kuhn was worse than a man short on Sunday we’d have been as well playing the first half with 10 men for all he contributed, the drop off in a player who looked a shoein for player of the year up until Christmas is difficult to comprehend and it’s maybe why he’s been moved around so many clubs, I’m not saying he’s downed tools but he looks a shadow of the player we know he can be on his day. I don’t want to be hypercritical with what the players have achieved so far this season but if we thought we could cruise to the treble then this is a wake up call. Tony Adams the great Arsenal captain says his dad always said “a fair day’s work for a fair day’s pay and you’ll be alright.” The days of player’s playing for the jersey no longer applies to the modern day footballer Celtic supporters just want to see our players’ put in a shift but the last three derbies and last season’s Scottish Cup Final we’ve been dug meat, it’s time for Brendan to show he’s an elite manager and get the best out of these players. Even a poor team can win one off derby’s but it’s becoming alarming now that we’ve lost two on the spin and won another on penalties and we need to go to Ipox and show that we’re the real deal anything less is unacceptable.
I certainly agree with the vast majority of comments expressed now and since last Sunday’s calamity. This season’s notion that Celtic’s performance would be a parade of enjoyment for us all to celebrate has been well and truly compounded.
By not getting the squad framework solidly in place in time for this season’s programme has caused multiple unnecessary problems. I have said many times, an unbalanced and unsettled team lacks inspiration and self confidence. It will not change. If we had a well formed squad, tactical adjustments are much easier to make during the game. We do get a glimpse of that in the second half of some games, but it should be there from the beginning. It is not rocket science; when are we going to get it sorted out.