Celtic are always teetering towards crisis, but whenever they do, the Ibrox side always manufactures one of their own…

Kris Boyd reckons the Ibrox side must be ready to pounce on Celtic.

That is the line from the Daily Record this morning, and it comes off the back of an eleven match unbeaten run.

Here is what he said, as reported by the Daily Record:

Celtic have been a team where you’ve felt a crisis is always around the corner.

It was like the crisis button was pressed after Falkirk.

Celtic are making harder work of the games than they should be.

Now, I’ll give Boyd this much, he isn’t wrong about the first part.

Celtic do feel like they are forever teetering towards a crisis.

But there is something he never mentions.

Every time Celtic seem to be in a crisis, the Ibrox side always manages to manufacture one of their own.

Funnily enough, it happens like clockwork.

We wobble, the Ibrox side smell blood, and the Scottish media start sharpening the pencils.

And then they trip over their own feet.

Boyd, to his credit, never tires of talking up his old club.

He sees an open door, and he wants the Ibrox side to kick it off its hinges.

Celtic are still the champions, last I checked.

Hilarious, isn’t it?

I’m not sure he’s ever been less right than the times he’s been most certain, and he’s been very certain a lot of times.

They will probably win their game in hand and get to within a point, and then they will drop points somewhere along the line.

You can almost write the script now.

I’ve seen this film so many times I could do the voiceover.

The Ibrox side go on a run, the pundits queue up to tell us the gap is closing, and the support gets nervous.

Boyd says McInnes has been away to the top five or six sides plus Aberdeen, and that his team will now have them at home.

Fine, I’ll give him that as well.

Win the game in hand and they are within a point of us.

And that is exactly where the panic will start, in the Celtic support and the Scottish press alike.

But then they will come back from the break to a difficult game against Motherwell, and that is the kind of fixture where the Ibrox side have a habit of tripping up.

It doesn’t matter where, it matters that it happens.

They always do drop points, and Celtic will pull away again.

It seems like it’s going to be that kind of season.

Our crises are generally self inflicted, and I won’t pretend otherwise.

Because let’s be honest about Celtic here.

Boyd has a point about Martin O’Neill, and I’d be a hypocrite to ignore it.

He says Martin is searching for a balance, and that Kasper Hogh isn’t delivering up front.

He says the wide players are not up to the level we’ve become used to seeing.

I’d say that’s fair enough.

Falkirk was a mess, and the points we’ve dropped haven’t come from the Ibrox side outplaying us.

They’ve come from us.

A team that blows sides away at home hasn’t done it this season, and the manager is still chopping and changing.

Nobody forced us into that.

Nobody made us start the season without a settled team and a striker who looks short of confidence.

Of course, you’d have to ask the board how we ended up here.

But that is a conversation for another day.

The point is, we do this to ourselves.

We find a way to win against Besiktas, we win again at the weekend, and suddenly the crisis is over.

Then we turn in a performance that wouldn’t frighten a pub team, and it’s back on again.

That isn’t a title challenge from the Ibrox side, it’s us riding a rollercoaster of our own making.

And if you can’t see the funny side of that, you’ll cry.

The Ibrox side have never been capable of capitalising on it.

This much we know.

We hand them the opportunity on a plate, and they find a way to drop it.

Eleven matches unbeaten is a decent run, and I’m not going to sit here and pretend otherwise.

Four points, with a game in hand, is not a gap to be sniffed at.

Having said that, a run is only a run until somebody puts real pressure on it.

The international break might help Martin reset.

It might just as easily help Derek McInnes remind his players how good they’ve been.

Who knows?

What I do know is that a tough run of away games against the top six is coming at us before the turn of the year.

That is where it gets interesting.

That is where Celtic will either hit the crisis button properly or put the whole thing to bed.

And that is where the Ibrox side get their chance to show they are different this time.

Are they capable of doing it?

I wouldn’t hold your breath…

The Ibrox side, a game in hand, and a Kris Boyd prediction.

What could possibly go wrong?

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