STEPHEN McGOWAN: If Ibrox trouncing proves something, it is that Brendan Rodgers wants MORE cash to repair obvious weaknesses

The football lobby group Fair Game Index have issued their annual report listing Britain’s most sustainably-run football clubs in 2024.

After collating details on club finances, governance, fan-community engagement, and equality-ethical standards, Celtic came top of the table ahead of Tottenham, Hearts, Manchester United and Aberdeen.

Scotland’s champions didn’t earn a reputation for fiscal prudence by spending tens of millions of pounds on players who can’t nail down a place in the starting 11. And you’d have paid decent money to be a fly on the wall of the Parkhead boardroom after that bin fire of a performance against Rangers.

Last summer the men in grey suits were harangued into flashing the cash. They came under serious pressure from all corners – this one included – to show a bit of ambition. As Danilo slotted home the third Rangers goal on a day of staggering ineptitude, they must have been grappling around their trouser pockets in search of the receipts.

They didn’t pay £9million to watch Adam Idah flailing around like a bin bag on the M8 for the last 20 minutes of games.

They didn’t shatter their transfer record for a second time to watch their under-the-weather £11m signing Arne Engels blow his nose on the substitutes’ bench.

Auston Trusty? He lasted 45 minutes of the Premier Sports Cup final, contracted a touch of flu and, bizarrely, hasn’t been seen since. He cost £5.5m.

There’s no need to spend £26m to roll over St Johnstone, Ross County and St Mirren. Celtic could do that for a fraction of the cash.

The trouble is that Brendan Rodgers wanted to take things to a new level. Over the first six months of the season, the manager has pretty much delivered. The team went 18 games in the Premiership undefeated. They established a 14-point lead over a Rangers side who find it easier to compete with the strongest team in the country than they ever do with St Mirren or Motherwell.

None of which alters the fact they were outplayed and outfought by a Clement side with the second-choice keeper in goal, a left-back playing on the right and an iffy central defence of Dujon Sterling and Robin Propper.

Forget quick transitions, xG analytics and low blocks. The only tactic the Rangers boss needs against Celtic is to give the ball to Liam Scales and wait for the bomb to go off.

He almost gave away a calamitous penalty in the Premier Sports Cup final. And, from the moment Ianis Hagi capitalised on the Irishman’s slack pass to open the scoring with a bobbling shot Kasper Schmeichel should have saved, Celtic were losing their first domestic game in 10 months.

When it comes to a Glasgow derby, talent alone rarely cuts it. The team which harbours the greatest hunger, desire and will-to-win are in with a fighting chance. While Rangers demonstrated all three of those qualities brilliantly, Celtic succumbed to the perils of a 14-point lead. They offered nothing at all.

When the PTSD wears off, they might come to see Thursday at Ibrox as a hidden blessing. The night they learned they’re nowhere near as good as they’d like to be.

This might sound like a counter-intuitive argument but, when their record signings are hardly pulling up stumps, it’s not less money Brendan Rodgers needs, it’s more.

Rodgers met Celtic’s major shareholder Dermot Desmond for a recent transfer pow wow in Dublin, where the need to sign more quality footballers was top of the agenda. If there was ever any doubt over the need to keep the pedal pressed to the metal, a 3-0 loss to Rangers settled the matter.

The manager is on the cusp of securing a pre-contract agreement for Kieran Tierney and, given his recent injury record, there’s a serious question over the defender’s ability to manage two games a week. 

However risky the punt, the need to secure a new first-choice left back was highlighted by Greg Taylor’s display the other day.

If Trusty isn’t good enough to displace Liam Scales, then there’s an issue there as well.

The need for a left winger with more technical craft than Daizen Maeda, meanwhile, should be obvious to all.

Bullied by the Rangers midfield, Celtic could *still* use a mobile, physical midfielder in the Victor Wanyama mould. 

And, if Atlanta come back for Kyogo Furuhashi, the temptation to snap their hand off might be a hell of a lot stronger now than it was in the summer.

With £75m burning a hole in the bank account, Celtic would be unwise to dismiss what captain Callum McGregor described as a ‘few warning signs’ in a sobering defeat at Ibrox.

History shows that these days happen. During his first spell in Glasgow, Rodgers’ Celtic lost 4-0 to Hearts at Tynecastle. In their 1990s pomp, even Walter Smith’s Rangers side were no strangers to an Old Firm aberration. 

A team which won nine in a row travelled across Glasgow in March 1991 and lost 3-0 to a Celtic team featuring Anton Rogan and Gerry Creaney. 

More recently, Ange Postecoglou’s side lost a dead rubber at Ibrox by the same scoreline and it meant diddly squat.

For Celtic, a painful defeat doesn’t change a great deal. Rodgers and his team remain 11 points clear and will retain the league title. 

The Premier Sports Cup is under lock and key and, despite the hounding at Ibrox, a home game against Young Boys offers a decent opportunity to secure qualification for the play-off round of the Champions League.

Progress in Europe would make the loss of an Old Firm game to Philippe Clement significantly less important.

If anything, a rotten display at Ibrox might do Brendan Rodgers a favour. A result which made no real difference to the title race provided a reminder of the team’s lingering, glaring weaknesses.

Given the questions over Idah, Engels and Trusty, it might be a good idea to delegate responsibility for picking any signings this month to head of recruitment Paul Tisdale.

The new man arrived at Parkhead with a reputation for being a snappy dresser. The January window should be spent giving Celtic’s first team a winter makeover.

Every day needs to be like Thursday for Rangers

An emphatic victory over Celtic flagged up the great conundrum surrounding this Rangers team. Where is that performance when they play the likes of Motherwell and St Mirren?

A 3-0 thumping was a Europa League display in everything but name. A Thursday game at Ibrox produced a high-tempo, aggressive performance which made a Parkhead side racing away with the league title look no better than Malmo, FCSB or Tottenham. When Philippe Clement’s team play that way, they’re good at what they do.

The problem lies elsewhere. They’ve won just four away games from ten in the Premiership, dropping points along the way to the likes of Hearts, Kilmarnock, Dundee United, St Mirren and Motherwell.

Stand-in captain Nico Raskin offered a rational explanation for why that might be the case after this week’s trouncing of their bitter rivals when he blamed the lack of space against the cannon fodder.

Where Celtic give them time and plenty of the ball to hit quickly on the counter, they don’t get that against teams assembled on a fraction of the budget.

Domestic opponents set up in a low block, close down the space and make themselves horrible to play against. And this Rangers squad simply isn’t good enough to break that down. Least of all when the manager bows to the sports scientists.

If Clement’s Rangers can find a way to replicate the energy, urgency and intensity of the last two Old Firm games every three days, they might be on to something.

Given their recent form on the road, it would surprise no-one if they travelled to Hibs on Sunday and dropped more points.