Rangers great Peter McCloy fears Celtic winning 10 in a row

Former Rangers keeper Peter McCloy (second from left) was at Hampden with Daphne Wallace, John Wallace and John Wallace, widow, grandson and son of Jock Wallace, the former Rangers manager who was inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame. Picture: Rob Casey/SNS

Wallace won 10 trophies during two spells in charge at Ibrox, including domestic trebles in 1976 and 1978. Unfortunately for McCloy, whom Wallace persuaded his predecessor, Willie Waddell, to sign from Motherwell, he believes the best that the current Rangers team can hope for in the foreseeable future is to prevent Celtic from completing a clean sweep by claiming the occasional cup.

McCloy fears that Rangers will spend years lagging behind andsuspects that Celtic can win at least 10 successive championships.

Brendan Rodgers’ side havecomfortably won both derby matches this season and even though they only prevailed by a solitary goal in the Betfred Cup semi-final, McCloy, right, did not take much solace.

“Winning the League Cup would have been a big thing and you’d have taken a fluke result the other week just to get through,” he said.

“That makes the Scottish Cup the big one. Apart from anything else, if Rangers can win it it means that Celtic won’t have won the treble.

“Of course, the big worry for Rangers and the fans is whether can they can stop Celtic before they win 10 titles in a row. Celtic will have made it six by the end of this season therefore money is going to have to be spent next summer to bring the quality that’s needed into the club so that they can make a proper challenge.

“Rangers need to challenge in order to give the fans some hope but, where that money will come from, I don’t know.

“Rangers equalled Celtic’s nine-in-a-row when people had said that it could never be done again but, if Celtic win 10 or more in a row now, that will never be repeated and that is the concern for Rangers.

“When I first came to Rangers they hadn’t won a trophy for five seasons and that was a barren spell, especially when you think of the good players we had at that time.

“Celtic had such a great team then but we often ran them close during that nine in a row – the gap wasn’t the same as it is now.”

Mark Warburton insisted that not only was there not a huge gulf between the clubs but also that it was closing. McCloy begs to differ.

He added: “After those years of being down and coming back up, it seems that they don’t have the money to sign the type of players who can challenge Celtic.

“There’s no reason why they shouldn’t finish second because, Celtic apart, they’ve spent more money than any other club. But there is definitely a gulf at the moment. Celtic are able to buy players like Scott Sinclair and  Moussa Dembele up front and Kolo Toure has strengthened their defence.”