Celtic is always looking forward. At Ibrox, they only look back, never forward, and that's why they'll never catch us

Today at 12:27 PM

At Ibrox, the past is all that matters, they think of nothing else.

1690, 1989 to 1997, and so on, and so on.

Last night, we saw a perfect example of this during the Aberdeen game.

The Onion bears unfurled several banners stating:

R*****s FC – Do not enter unless you’re ready to put yourself second, and that should be the only time second is good enough for you.

These, apparently, were the words of the immortal Walter Smith.

Smith is part of an era that passed almost 30 years ago.

What he might have said then is certainly not applicable now.

To a degree, I understand why they cling to the past over there.

In reality, it is ALL they have to cling to.

The 21st century, now a quarter gone, hasn’t exactly been kind to them, has it?

But what they fail to grasp is the fact that the current Ibrox board just cannot deliver the kind of success they demand.

As I’ve often alluded to, their success in the nineties was bought and paid for by Bank of Scotland, and Dave Murray’s good mate, Gavin Masterton.

I think it’s fair to say, they will never have a friend like Gavin Masterton again.

So, while the klanbase shouts and screams for change, and for levels to be raised to the levels of the nineties and the Walter Smith era, they fail to grasp that in 2025, this is impossible.

UEFA simply won’t allow it.

Nor will any financial institution ever allow the levels of lending that went on during that era.

As a result of clinging to the past, the klanbase cannot see a future.

Or, more to the point, they do not want to contemplate a future in which they have to play second fiddle to Celtic.

So they just continously fire slogans from the past at their board, in the hopes it’ll change things, which it won’t.

Celtic, as a club, while it cherishes it’s past, the dark years included, because they shaped us into what we are now, is always looking forward.

Looking to become bigger and better.

And while we, the Celtic fans, might demand this to happen at a faster pace than it does, it happens at a pace that is relative to the environment we inhabit.

We’ve long complained that the board’s only ambition is to keep the Ibrox club at arm’s length.

But this season, if we manage to make the next round of the Champions League, we cannot deny that this has to be seen as real, tangible progress.

This, we can attribute more to the manager and his drive, rather than the board.

But we have to accept that, to some degree, the board is on board with this.

They are attempting to facilitate the manager’s vision for the club.

What they do in this current transfer window will go a long way towards showing us their level of commitment to the manager, and the future he sees for the footballing operation.

But one of the biggest reasons we stay ahead of the Ibrox club, is because we consistently run a sustainable operation.

We generate our own wealth.

When Philippe Clement complains about the fact we have more money than his club, he would do well to recognise that we have earned every penny of that money through our club.

This is something they fail completely to grasp over at Ibrox.

They cannot countenance the fact that Celtic is run solely on Celtic’s money.

It’s something they’re desperate to emulate over there.

But they just cannot do it, because every penny they spend is just to keep up with us.

And keeping the lights on.

This is what the klanbase demands, but they never take into account the cost of their demands.

They also do not understand that in order to be better than Celtic, they need to be richer than Celtic.

And while their directors have very deep pockets, they just aren’t that deep.

The fundamental difference between their club and ours is this:

Not one of our board of directors puts a single penny of their money into our club.

In the unlikely event that we found ourselves in a situation like the Ibrox club, there’s very little chance that even then, they would put any of their money into the club.

They’re just too used to receiving money from the club.

Ibrox board members, however, have been ploughing their own money into the club since 2012.

I’m sure at some point they believed they’d get a return on their investment.

But some of them are at the point now where they’ve given up the ghost.

A lot of them have written off the money that’s owed to them, because they know full well they’re never going to get it under the current circumstances.

Hypothetically speaking, if by some miracle they managed to make the club sustainable, and then generated some profit out of it, then who do the fans think would be lining up for what’s rightfully owed to them?

This is why they don’t even want to entertain the idea of becoming a sustainable club.

Because anyone with a brain out there knows that the board would have to be paid back what they’re owed.

Which would further extend the already long and winding road to financial recovery.

Thus resulting in them falling further and further behind Celtic.

Effectively the fans are taking on a scorched earth policy.

To continue the way they are, throwing everything at stopping Celtic, will eventually result in the death of the second entity.

But they believe it would be better to achieve another Pyrrhic victory than it would be to face reality.

I wrote about their Pyrrhic victory of 2021 the other day.

That played a big part in where they find themselves today.

And where exactly do they find themselves today?

Well, they have a manager who won’t quit, despite his abysmal away record, stating that he’s “not a quitter“.

Granted, these are fighting words, but they are meaningless if you aren’t actually winning.

That’s almost the same as somebody with a serious gambling addiction, who just won’t quit, despite losing everything.

Clement doesn’t care what damage this does to his already shredded reputation, he’s not quitting because he has the Ibrox board over the barrel of a gun.

He knows what they’d get away with paying him if he did quit.

They then have a fan base that lives predominantly in the past.

They believe it is their divine right to lord it over Scottish football just as they did 30 years ago.

But that was 30 years ago.

A lifetime for some.

For an Ibrox fan born in 1995, they would have been 16 when the dead club won it’s final League title.

They have lived to see one more League title won in their lifetime by the current entity.

It’s fair to say, they have not grown up on success.

Spare a thought for a 16 year old Ibrox fan born in 2009?

No doubt they’ve been filled with stories of the glory days by their Dads, but they were too young to remember the death of the old club, and all they’ve experienced with the new club is 3 trophy wins.

Do they feel they have the right to demand success when the only view of real success they have had in their lifetimes is the club they’ve been brought up to hate winning everything in sight?

You can see why they’d crave it.

But they’ve never really experienced it.

Finally, you have a board that wants to put the brakes on.

Wants the club to become sustainable, but knows this is only possible if they’re willing to play second fiddle to Celtic.

The realists amongst their board know they’re already playing second fiddle to Celtic.

They have been since 2012.

Any business man with a brain knows it would be easier to make money playing second fiddle to Celtic while attempting to be sustainable.

So why continue to do it while hemorrhaging their own money?

You can see why they don’t have the appetite to continue doing it.

But every time they walk into Ibrox, they have to face dogs abuse from their own support.

And while they are businessmen, they are also Ibrox fans, who love the club.

Hell, they must really love it considering how much of their own money they’ve thrown at it.

So they are caught between a rock and a hard place.

All of the three above factors are what keep the Ibrox club in stasis.

Always looking back, but never moving forward.

Celtic, on the other hand, as a club is free of all those shackles.

Which allows us to continually look to the future.

We bit the bullet they can’t bite at Ibrox 31 years ago.

The problem for the Ibrox club is that if they don’t change their ways, they’re facing a different kind of bullet.

A silver one, straight through the heart of their club.

Fired by their own support.

They did nothing to save their club in 2012.

Neither will they do anything when the time for this entity is at hand.

Except to continue to shout about not being second best to anyone.

And demanding the success that is rightfully theirs.

Dead or alive.

YouTube: Sack The Board!! – Trinity Tims Podcast

The other day, we released the 7th episode of the Trinity Tims, we titled it Sack The Board, in honour of the chaos over at Ibrox! Please check it out and like, share and subscribe if you enjoy what we do!

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