When Ally McCoist made his famous “kick us while we’re down” speech, there were few, if any voices, of a Light Blue persuasion that were criticising the Rangers boss at the time, and how he must be smiling inside at what is going on across the city just now.
Charlie Nicholas has stuck not only one boot in but has gone in fully two-footed on Neil Lennon as their proverbial “war of words” has been ratcheted up a notch by the former Sky Sports pundit.
There has been a tit-for-tat exchange running throughout the season and in his Daily Express column, Nicholas has shown little sympathy for the Celtic manager, as reported by The Daily Record:
“Neil is a lucky, lucky boy to have had the privilege to manage Celtic on two occasions.
“Mowbray had been made promises by the Celtic board, who are also under scrutiny now, and they reneged on them.
“That board didn’t deliver and then turned to Lenny, ironically after a Ross County defeat.
“He did a fine job and he got them off and running towards nine-in-a-row but it was never the most taxing job in the world.
“Also, when Neil came back, he didn’t earn the right to become Celtic manager.
“Neil is an old-fashioned manager and a Martin O’Neill-type, who will let his coaches get on with things. The problem that has been growing for me – and I have said it before – is the cheapness and the way Celtic go about things.
“I have very little sympathy for Neil because he has caused his own problems, his own weakness at Celtic has now left them in this untenable position.”
Who needs enemies with friends like these! From a Rangers perspective we must keep winning if this is the end result of them being knocked out of their first domestic trophy in five years.
There was no mentioning of any of these complaints when they were being handed the trophy in May, everything was rosy in the garden of green and white, oh how quickly things have turned sour.
McCoist was right, we were always going to come back and we are now stronger than we have been in more than a decade, and the repercussions being felt in the East End are quite spectacular.