Hugh Keevins Says Rangers Will Win the League at a Canter – Celtic Fans Should Be Delighted He’s Done It Again

There might just be some good news for Celtic supporters after a miserable few weeks.

Hugh Keevins has predicted Rangers will win the Premiership “in a canter”.

Thanks, Hugh.

Because if ever Celtic supporters needed reminding that football is not decided by newspaper columns in September, Keevins himself has provided plenty of reason not to treat sweeping predictions as certainty.

Keevins has gone all-in

Keevins actually acknowledges in his column that his conclusion could be described as a “knee-jerk reaction”.

Then he proceeds to make it anyway.

After Rangers defeated Celtic twice in eight days, he has decided Derek McInnes winning the championship is “nailed on”.

Nobody should pretend Celtic are playing well. They aren’t.

The 3-0 League Cup defeat at Ibrox was dreadful and the 1-0 Premiership defeat at Celtic Park was another deeply worrying performance.

Rangers deserved those victories.

But two derby victories do not decide a 38-game league championship.

September has suddenly become May

That is where this column becomes remarkable.

A dreadful Celtic fortnight has been extrapolated across an entire season.

Rangers are ahead of Celtic. Celtic have serious problems. The squad looks disjointed and Martin O’Neill’s position has created uncertainty that cannot be allowed to drift indefinitely.

All of that can be true.

It still doesn’t make a Rangers title “nailed on”.

Football simply doesn’t work like that.

Form changes. Injured players return. January transfer windows happen. Managers come and go. Teams expected to win drop points in matches nobody expected them to lose.

Rangers themselves have already demonstrated that this season.

Yet Keevins has looked at the situation in September and effectively declared the competition over.

Celtic must fix their own mess

None of this should become an excuse for Celtic’s hierarchy.

The club has created many of its own problems.

There needs to be clarity over O’Neill, greater coherence on the football side and serious planning rather than Celtic stumbling from one temporary solution to another.

But Celtic being badly run at present and Rangers being guaranteed champions are two completely different arguments.

Keevins has jumped from one to the other.

And that is why I’m actually delighted he has made this prediction.

He’s planted the flag.

Rangers will win it “in a canter”. McInnes winning the title is “nailed on”.

Fine.

Keep the column somewhere safe.

Because football has an amusing habit of making definitive September predictions look very different when May arrives.

And if Celtic needed any additional motivation to sort themselves out and respond, Hugh Keevins has just supplied it.

Key Takeaways

• Hugh Keevins has predicted Rangers will win the Premiership “in a canter”.
• He describes Derek McInnes winning the championship as “nailed on”.
• Celtic’s recent performances deserve serious criticism, but the season is far from finished.
• Two derby defeats do not decide a 38-game championship.
• Celtic must now sort out their own problems and make Keevins’ prediction one worth revisiting at the end of the season.