Barry Ferguson thinks Celtic are there for the taking, as he reminisces about the good ol’ days
Eric Knott 
It would appear that Celtic’s capitulation against Hibernian last Sunday has set a lot of people to believing that we’re now a spent force.
There for the taking, as it were.
Up until that point, our rivals thought we were riding our luck, and that it finally ran out on Sunday.
To a degree, they’d be right.
But form tends to go out the window when a Glasgow Derby is next on the agenda.
After Sunday’s defeat, I always knew that Ibrox diehards like Barry Ferguson would come crawling out of the woodwork.
Bazza has decided to tell us what it felt like to play for the dead club back in the day.
How it made him, and all of those happy bears out there feel.
He welcomes readers in the Record to his “mad wee world”:
That was what was whirling through my mind. There’s only 11 of us lucky enough to run out there wearing those shirts. But there are thousands of others whose happiness depends entirely on what we do next.
Welcome to Barry’s mad wee world. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it.
But that’s just the way my brain began to work when I was going into a game like the one that’s waiting for R*****s at Ibrox in just a few days’ time.
You see, Bazza smells blood.
He thinks because of the manner in which we lost against Hibernian, Celtic are now there for the taking.
In fact, he says straight out that he believes the Ibrox side will win.
He’s that confident.
And in reality, who can fault him?
I certainly can’t, we’ve been abysmal over the last four fixtures, you’d imagine we’ll capitulate easily at Ibrox bearing that in mind, wouldn’t you?
We can’t score goals for love nor money.
Anybody with a brain out there at the moment would be making Bazza’s side favourites for this one.
Including Bazza.
They have the home advantage, and they’ve only lost two games this season, as opposed to the seven we’ve lost.
The odds really are stacked against us.
And Barry Ferguson knows it.
In the old days Bazza was willing to run through brick walls for the cause.
Charged up on black hatred, with the Billy Boys ringing in his ears, he ran out onto the Ibrox turf like a man possessed.
He would have injected it into his veins if he could have.
A mad wee world indeed.
However, throughout his upbeat article, Bazza neglects to mention the Celtic man who he would have once considered his arch nemesis.
The man who has the distinction of whitewashing Bazza’s old club in the 2003/04 season.
Something no Celtic manager has done since.
And a man who’s record against the dead club probably sends shivers down Barry Ferguson’s spine.
Yes, wee Bazza in his mad wee world has neglected to mention Martin O’Neill.
The Celtic interim manager might just prove the difference between the two sides on the day.
If anybody knows how to win these kinds of games, Martin O’Neill does.
And if anybody knows how to motivate a team to play in these games, he does.
O’Neill is the kind of guy who can actually convince player, in the right circumstances, to run through walls for him.
I’m not sure that Danny Röhl has the same kind of motivational skills.
Especially when you consider he couldn’t even motivate his side to win against 10 man, bottom of the table Livingston last Sunday.
Bazza hopes that all of the new players at Ibrox will thrive on the atmosphere next Sunday:
Trust me, some of the new guys will never have experienced anything like what they are about to be thrown into. They should relish every single second of it.
The likes of Tochi Chukwuani, Tuur Rommens, Andreas Skov Olsen and Ryan Naderi will be blown away by it. But they have to embrace the madness and thrive on it because they’ll never sample the same intensity anywhere else.
Plug into it. Breathe in the energy from the stands. Let it fill your whole body to the point of fever pitch.
Martin O’Neill, on the other hand, will be motivating his charges to silence that crowd.
Which is something that is quite easily done, as we’ve learned in the recent past.
Considering the circumstances of last Sunday’s poor loss to Hibernian, and what went before it, I wouldn’t be holding out much hope for this fixture.
But something deep down tells me that Martin O’Neill might just have one or two tricks up his sleeve for this one.
That’s where I’m placing my hope when it comes to getting a result in this one.
Who knows?
Wouldn’t it be great – well not great for the heart – but wouldn’t it be great if another injury time winner stole the points?
Bazza might think we’re there for the taking, but he neglects the influence of Martin O’Neill at his peril.
Neither side is very good, as we’ve seen throughout this season.
Ultimately, the side that wants it more will win this one.
That’s what it will boil down to.
I guess we’ll find out on the day which side that is, won’t we?
Celtic are defending a title.
If that is motivation enough to win?
Then I don’t know what is.
Key Takeaways
- Celtic’s recent defeat against Hibernian has led many, including Barry Ferguson, to believe they’re vulnerable.
- Despite a poor run, the upcoming Glasgow Derby could still see Celtic finding form, thanks to interim manager Martin O’Neill.
- O’Neill has a history of successfully motivating teams, unlike current manager Danny Röhl.
- Martin O’Neill’s past success against Rangers might influence the outcome of the match.
- Celtic must tap into their title defence motivation to secure a favourable result against their rivals.
we can dream all we want there is no way we are getting out of that place with anything the officials have decided where that title is going and it is NOT Parkhead we will have at least a player sent off and the usual Tavenier penalty and a few key injuries and our fans along with some Celtic staff attacked and nothing done about it by our board , put your house on it.
The problem is this squad has been assembled by a board at war with the fans and intent on austerity to the detriment of the club and fans this is what corporate greed and an absentee landlord megalomaniac gets you zilch and till they are gone it will continue as zilch stop giving them your money
@Charles & Che,thanks guys,you both saved me the bother of replying to Eric.
I said get yer house on the huns to beat Hearts at Swinecastle as well.
I said they would gub hearts at the Stade de Bigot, and they did.
The league trophy will have blue ribbons on it this May,courtesy of Celtic PLC.
Don’t listen to the hun media hype
They’re just as sh*t as us
It ain’t an impossibility we come out there win 3 points
Thats the only way Barry ebt Ferguson can won at cheating liebrox and he knows it Beaton Dallas Dickinson Walsh but hopefully celtic have got the bottle to stand up to the biggest cheats in Scottish football football oldco and now newco sevco dirty cheating masonic fuckpigs from liebrox scumbags..