Walter Smith tells Rangers to use Celtic title decision as a spur to stop 10 in a row

‘They managed to win nine in a row - well, eight in a row and now this one’

Former Rangers manager Walter Smith.

Former Rangers manager Walter Smith insists the Ibrox club have no option but to accept the circumstances surrounding Celtic’s latest title win and should now focus all their energies on stopping their Old Firm rivals winning a record-breaking 10th successive domestic crown next season.

A lingering feeling of resentment among Rangers supporters over the SPFL board’s decision to curtail the 2019-20 campaign and declare Celtic champions was evidenced by the comments of former Ibrox defender Gareth McAuley who this week claimed it is a ‘hollow and tainted’ title.

Celtic were 13 points clear at the top of the Premiership with eight fixtures left to play when football was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic on 13 March. Rangers, whose title challenge faded after the winter break, had a game in hand and 27 points left to play for, including two Old Firm matches.

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard.

Smith, who guided Rangers to their own nine-in-a-row feat in the 1990s which equalled the record set by Jock Stein’s Celtic from 1966 to 1974, believes Scottish football was left with little option but to fall in line with several other European nations and call time on the current season.

He feels Rangers should now use it as an added incentive to try and wrench the title away from Neil Lennon’s squad in 2020-21.

"Hopefully it will spur them on,” Smith said. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that for Rangers they’ve had a lot of years now where Celtic have been uppermost in the league. They’ve had a really good team and managed to win nine championships in a row - well, eight championships in a row and now this one.

“I think we’re in strange times. We’re looking at all the smaller countries in Europe who have decided to finish their leagues, and do the same thing as we’ve done in Scotland, so therefore I think, whether we like it or whether we don’t, we just have to accept it and get on with it.

"And hopefully Rangers, who have been making progress under Steven Gerrard over the last couple of seasons, can get together and try and prevent Celtic getting 10.”

Smith missed out on winning 10-in-a-row with Rangers in the last season of his first spell as manager of the club, losing out to Wim Jansen’s Celtic on the final day of the 1997-98 season.

Speaking to the Sky Sports Football Show, Smith agreed that everyone connected with Rangers will be just as motivated to halt the setting of a new record as Celtic were 23 years ago.

"I don’t think there’s any doubt about that,” said Smith. “Everyone will do that. Celtic, when we were at nine in a row, they won (it in) the 10th season, they celebrated and we were disappointed.

“They had great celebrations for one in a row, that was it. That’s the way it is in Scotland. That’s the way it’s going to be next season.

“And Steven and the people that run Rangers will know that and hopefully they can have the same reaction as Celtic had to Rangers in doing that.”

Although Gerrard has been unable to win any silverware in his first two seasons in charge of Rangers, Smith has no doubts about the managerial credentials of the former Liverpool and England captain.

“You can’t take away from the fact that Steven’s doing a really good job,” added Smith. “Rangers haven’t been in the circumstances they were in a lot of the time when I was the manager and when Graeme (Souness) was the manager.

“We got a great deal of help from the board, the board are doing a really good job helping the club recover from unprecedented times for Rangers and everybody’s trying to pull together so hopefully they can get it together for next season.

“They’ve shown this season they can challenge, they just had that blip after the break, and hopefully next season that challenge can bring a tangible result for them at the end of the day.”

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