We don’t need Rangers but we’d miss them, says Kris Commons

IF any player has shown he can look beyond Rangers it is Kris Commons. The winger may still be sensitive to the suggestion he could have gone to the Ibrox club when he joined Celtic from Derby in January 2011. “There was interest from both but it wasn’t a choice,” the 28-year-old says.

He isn’t so reticent, though, on the issue of Scottish football, and the club he represents, requiring a strong, top flight-ensconced Ibrox side, to be a thriving attraction.

“We don’t need Rangers, but we would miss them,” Commons says of the administration-stricken club. It is an institution that may soon cease to exist in its current form. Whatever new company is formed in its name is likely to be allowed by other Scottish Premier League chairman to waltz into the top flight. Sporting principles – and indeed Ally McCoist – suggest that starting again in the Third Division may be more appropriate, a course of action that would see the Glasgow derby disappearing for at least three years.

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“I love playing them and most Celtic players say that and fans love watching it,” Commons says. “But if a team doesn’t play by the rules and has broken them they deserve to get punished. But the hierarchy will sort it out. They will have to face consequences for what they’ve done. As for the Third Division, I don’t know. I am looking forward to getting the SPL trophy and cracking on in the Champions League. It would be a shame if Rangers weren’t in the top flight. But Celtic is such a huge club with such a big fan base that if we get a good European draw we hope we can do well and that might attract a higher calibre of player.”

Commons hasn’t proved the same calibre of player as he did in a spectac-ular first half-season. Between January and May of last year, he bagged 14 goals. Until he scored the second in Celtic’s 3-0 derby victory last weekend, he had made no scoring impression and little other positive impression these past ten months. Injuries beset him early on. He doesn’t believe the culture, and body, shock of Celtic’s close season globetrotting to Australia and back and forth between the seaboards of the United States did him any favours, and he hopes that will not be repeated.

“It was a long way to travel for pre-season games and we didn’t really get the chance to do fitness work because of the jet lag. We had three or four internal flights and it wasn’t ideal,” Commons says. “When we were out in Australia we were getting up at four or five in the morning, bright as a button. It was surreal. We were expected to play and train under those circumstances. This year, if we’re looking to get off to a good start and do well in the European qualifiers, then we need to make sure we have a good pre-season.

“It was nice to visit Australia and see the Celtic supporters over there, it just wasn’t ideal in terms of the start of the SPL and the European games. I mean, we will have three or four weeks off this summer and then we’ll be back to work.

“We want to be as fit as possible. And be as fresh as possible. It’s only a matter of weeks before we have the biggest game of our season. I think we’re just an inch away from creating greatness here and we can do it. Personally, this will be the biggest pre-season of my career because the intense fixtures we’ll face to get into the Champions League.”

Frequent flying didn’t help Commons shake off niggling injuries that left him looking puffy until his recent return. “Travelling halfway around the world to get fit wasn’t ideal,” he says. “I hope I avoid injuries this summer. I just can’t wait to get my foot back through the door and get going again. I’m 28 now and I feel that if I do a wee bit during the summer then I come back in a better frame of mind. I was used to pre-season down south and some guys I played with will have nine or ten weeks off. I think that’s too long. It’s a change for me and the other lads who have moved here from England. We get three or four weeks off here. It’s about adapting.

“The fitness coaches here will also give me a programme to go away with and stick to. They will set me targets and I have to reach them. It’s different from Derby. When I was there, on our first game back we had a half-easy morning and then a game of golf in the afternoon.

“It was two weeks in Bournemouth rather than being on the other side of the world.”

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