EVEN the most fervently triumphal of those Celtic and Rangers fans who crowd into Ibrox tomorrow is likely to reserve at least one small corner of his fevered mind to accommodate a vexing thought. It is the ever-growing realisation that, like a seemingly once-invincible currency, an Old Firm fixture that had appeared impossible to devalue may be heading rapidly and irretrievably towards worthlessness.
The process would have begun, quite insidiously, two or three years ago with the decline of the standard of player now common to each club and would become disconcertingly apparent in this week's outings in Europe.
Most damningly, the impoverishe
d performances in Rangers' 4-1 defeat by Sevilla and Celtic's 1-1 draw with Rapid Vienna (both on their own turf) seemed to have been anticipated by respective supports whose seemingly deepening disenchantment was betrayed by attendances appreciably below capacity.
These phenomena were reminiscent of the Sunday morning at Ibrox in 1976 when Jock Wallace reflected ruefully on the previous day's match and wondered how on earth a Rangers team who had captured the treble just a few months earlier could face a Dundee United side then at the top of the league before a crowd of just 16,000.
This young(ish) reporter suggested that Jock and his players had never recovered from their capitulation in the first round of the European Cup to FC Zurich. The Swiss were hardly giants of the continental game and their 1-1 draw in Glasgow and 1-0 victory in Zurich seemed to confirm the widely-held suspicion – including among many of their own followers – that Rangers had been pretty low-level treble winners.
"Ach, ye're right, kid," said Wallace. "Ye cannae fool the fans nooadays. They know that Europe will find oot if ye're a good team or no'." Precisely two weeks later, Rangers hosted the second Old Firm match of the season – they had drawn 2-2 on their visit to Celtic Park – in front of a paltry 43,500.
Such alarming absenteeism is unlikely tomorrow since the present-day fixture is all-ticket and these have been sold for a stadium that holds only 50,000. But the insistent drag factor created by regular exposure to sub-standard players seems certain to exact a substantial toll on forthcoming 'attractions', especially the so-called big events, at home and abroad.
In terms of the feeling that he is being taken for a simpleton, the average supporter will not have changed much in the past 33 years. Evidence for this claim is presented widely in the modern era, especially in forums, websites and phone-ins.
There was, for example, a predictably resentful riposte to the claim by the SFA chief executive, Gordon Smith, that there is too much negativity in Scotland. "I spent part of my playing career abroad and I really noticed that when I came back," said Smith. "Culturally, we're a very negative people."
Nobody, however, needs to take the needle at Smith's comments to know that no amount of positivity will alter the visual evidence this season of 12 SPL clubs, from top to bottom, polluted by moderate players.
Supporters are generally offended by the propagandising of managers, players and other 'professionals' who seemingly cannot help themselves in the matter of talking up the merits of the game. In at least this one respect – whatever anyone may think of his capabilities – Tony Mowbray has been a gratifying exception.
Within minutes of the St Mirren manager, Gus MacPherson, telling the country, via his radio interview, that Celtic are a high-quality side and that his own players had played very well in the second half of what had been 'a very good match', Mowbray became the fans' champion by asserting that his team and the game itself had been as dire as most of those in attendance had thought.
It is entirely understandable that those who earn a living from a certain product should defend its name. They shouldn't, however, expect the rest of us to fall for the spiel.
Slow start may ultimately benefit Rangers in EuropeTHE most bizarre aspect of Rangers' Champions League campaign so far, of course, is that their followers would have been more worried about their prospects of progressing to the last 16 had they followed their opening draw away to VfB Stuttgart with a victory, rather than a comprehensive defeat, against Sevilla.
There are too many bad memories of the Ibrox club starting strongly and finishing weakly to take the chance of treading a painfully familiar path. Despite occupying bottom place in Group G, Walter Smith's side appear to have considerably brighter prospects of progress than Celtic, similarly placed in Group C of the Europa League.
What Rangers require is a 100 per cent record from Sevilla – not an unfeasible proposition – and then to win both their remaining home matches against Stuttgart and Unirea. The seven-point total would ensure the worst they could do would be to tie with the Romanians and hope that they would win the head-to-head.
Certainly, if Stuttgart are generally to be considered the Scottish champions' most formidable rivals for second place behind the Spaniards, Smith's side should be accorded odds-on favouritism. Anyone who saw the Germans worried out of their stride by the Ibrox team on their own ground would have their misgivings about their spirit confirmed by what occurred in the second match, against Unirea in Bucharest.
Once again, a lead proved not to be enough, the Germans pulled back to the same 1-1 scoreline achieved against Rangers. Don't imagine the Stuttgart dressing-room features too many Iron Crosses.
