Tony Cascarino: Celtic's record is because Rangers are so weak

Tony Cascarino battles for the ball with Rangers defenders Gary Stevens (left) and Oleg Kuznetsov during his Celtic days. Picture: SNS

He told talkSPORT earlier in the week that due to the level of opposition Celtic have faced the 63 game unbeaten run “it just feels this means nothing”.

Writing a column for The Times on Saturday, the ex-Parkhead flop agreed that he was “hopeless” for Celtic but said the reason Celtic have achieved the feat is because Rangers “are so weak”.

He wrote: “When I played in Scotland Glasgow Rangers had Nigel Spackman, Ally McCoist, Mark Hateley, Gary Stevens and a good few others. Now Celtic can beat Rangers 5-1. When both the Old Firm were strong you wouldn’t see a run of 60 games unbeaten because each team would lose a derby after maybe 20 or 25 games. Is it a coincidence that Celtic have done this record at a time when Rangers are nowhere near as competitive?”

Cascarino likened Celtic’s record to Manchester City going unbeaten in League One in England and labelled the Hoops “a Europa League team, at best”.

“I played for Ireland and I have a massive association with Celtic,” he wrote in The Times. “I love it. But please don’t tell me this is some fantastic achievement. It’s not.

“When I look at the squads and I see the names, Kenny Miller playing at 53 or whatever he is, I see players who are playing League Two, League One football who go to Scotland to continue their career. People like Steven Whittaker at Hibernian. Anthony Stokes went to Hibs, he was left out at Blackburn. Look at Josh Windass, a promising young player but he went from Accrington to Rangers. I could give you a load of players. Scotland’s player of the year last season was Scott Sinclair - Aston Villa let him go.

“But the gulf I am talking about, between PSG and Celtic, is the same as between Celtic and Dundee.

“I just don’t think their record stacks up if you look at all the information out there. Neil Lennon is an ex-Celtic player, he said what he said about me. Whatever, I know Neil. Neil and Chris Sutton are the same - they want to say this is an amazing achievement. If it’s that amazing please tell me who’s going to beat Celtic next? Because I can’t see it.

“If Man City went unbeaten in League One do you think he would be having an open-top bus for that? That’s essentially the gulf between Celtic and the rest in Scotland.”