Celtic decide not to show up at Ibrox. But were they told not to show up?

01/02/2025 02:00 PM

If Celtic went 17 points clear today, the league was over.

Regardless of saying that, it’s over anyway.

But there is a bare chink of light there for the Ibrox side after their win today.

They will have their tails up after this rare win.

It will inject a bit of life into their virtually dead season.

No doubt it has saved Clement’s job.

However, the conspiracy theorist in me can’t help but feel something was amiss today.

That was the ghost of Celtic we saw at Ibrox today.

It wasn’t the Celtic we know and have come used to seeing play this season.

So, I’m going to give the logical explanation first, then follow it with something slightly different.

Logically speaking, we didn’t show up today.

They did, and clearly they wanted it more than we did.

Clement wanted it so badly, he’d have bitten Cyriel Dessers’ hand off for that victory.

Sometimes the need to win trumps all the effort in the world.

But that’s the thing, there was NO effort from Celtic.

Nothing.

Was it complacency?

You know?

We’re 14 points ahead, these guys aren’t great, ravaged with injuries, we’ll beat them easily.

Never underestimate the dog that gets backed into a corner, no matter how weak he is.

If he wants to get out, he’ll find a way.

Clement showed he’s that dog today.

Celtic showed they were toothless today, but were their teeth removed?

Interesting, don’t you think?

Rationally, you could say we lost that game because of our tactics.

Did Clement figure them out?

Did he know we’d make the exact same approach to the game as we did in the League Cup final?

Is he smarter than we’re giving him credit for?

We’ve laughed at him for so long now, maybe we should take pause to think?

Maybe he’s not so stupid after all?

So here’s a side theory, maybe Clement took the time to watch our last 5 or 6 games.

And while he was doing that, maybe he figured Celtic’s Reo Hatate was a bit of a soft touch.

Maybe he figured Brendan Rodgers has a persistent soft touch for him.

And maybe he reckoned Rodgers would pick him for today’s game because he has that one, or two moments of magic in him?

He almost pulled one off with our only shot on target.

But he didn’t.

And everything else he did was error prone and weak.

Picking Hatate is now a gamble.

A gamble he’ll do something like he did at Pittodrie?

With a downside which results in a performance like today’s.

Because every gamble has a downside, that’s the risk of gambling.

The downside is you lose, which is exactly what we did today.

That aside, Clement is no tactical genius.

We know that from the way he sets up his sides.

But that doesn’t mean he’s stupid, and that he can’t figure out an opposing manager’s tactics either.

His side’s performance today had all the hallmarks of a side managed by a coach who knew exactly what to expect from his opposing number.

Conversely, though, you would also expect that Brendan Rodgers knew what to expect from Clement.

Wouldn’t you?

Rodgers is neither stupid nor naive.

Complacent maybe, but definitely none of the above.

So why, or how, did Clement continually outsmart him today?

It was clear Clement knew he’d persist with Hatate.

You just have to examine how his players consistently harassed the Japanese playmaker and forced him into the kind of errors he’s prone to making regularly.

And he made them with unerring regularity in the first half, of that, there can be no doubt.

Clement must have been rubbing his hands with glee when he saw Hatate coming out again in the second half.

I believe any manager worth his salt would have hooked him at half time after his error prone performance in the first.

I’m not having a pop at Rodgers by saying that.

But we do know how stubborn he can be at times.

So, that’s enough about the tactical side of today’s pitiful performance.

We all saw it, we know what the end result was.

Now, it’s time for me to release the conspiracy theorist in me.

The Celtic board are looking at the permutations of us winning today, and Celtic going 17 points clear.

From the outside, looking in, that’s not good for the game.

A league won by early January does not make for an exciting second half of the season.

It doesn’t attract the kind of attention a close run title race like last season’s did.

Well, it wasn’t that close in the end, but you catch my drift?

Is there a suspicion of let’s not put that last nail in the coffin just yet?

Okay, okay, you’re all starting to think I’m a nut job here, but just hear me out.

Have you EVER seen a Celtic side play that bad at Ibrox since the ninties?

And bear in mind that back then, we were playing sides that were 10 times better than the current side.

Today we faced what was without doubt the weakest Ibrox side we have ever faced in their short history.

Think about that.

The WEAKEST Ibrox side we’ve ever faced.

And they absolutely lorded it over us.

Something about that just does not sit right with me.

So, from within my conspiracy theory spawns a further two conspiracy theories.

Theory 1, Rodgers was told to take the foot off the gas to ensure Clement retained his job as Ibrox manager.

Which logically, makes a lot of sense, because keeping him in a job keeps us WAY ahead of them.

They may have won the battle today, but they are miles off winning the war.

They just don’t have the resources to do so.

Today was Clement’s Battle of the Bulge, well, the early stages of it, where the Germans shocked the Allies.

You know how that ended.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict that Hibs will beat the Ibrox side on Sunday.

We’ll beat St. Mirren at home, and the gap will return to 14 points.

Clement’s victory today over us will give him the stay of execution he so badly needed.

I said that this game could be his last in my previous article, now we know it won’t be.

Could today’s result have been a board level tactical decision?

We’ll never know, but a performance like today’s just does not make sense.

Celtic are not THAT bad.

Here’s conspiracy theory number 2.

It’s similar to number 1, but there are different reasons for it.

Rodgers was once again told to take the foot off the gas.

Allow the Ibrox side to win so that the league race doesn’t become a boring non-spetacle?

With the plucky challengers showing they’re not dead and buried after all?

That theory could not be possible, could it?

No Celtic player would willingly go out and play as bad as they did today when facing the Ibrox side, would they?

Could they?

I must admit, I’ve never seen Callum McGregor so anonymous in a Glasgow Derby….

Is he getting leggy due to his age, or is something more sinister afoot?

Hey, I’m just throwing things out there.

For shits and giggles.

But do me a favour?

Try and accept that nothing in this world is ever quite what it seems to be.

Something just does not sit right with me about today.

But hey, that’s just me.

I figured since the Ibrox side are always full of conspiracy theories, if we can’t beat them, we should join them!

As conspiracy theorists, that is.

Next week’s podcast is going to make for a very interesting debate!

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