Rangers blow 56 and Celtic are now favourites to get there first | OneFootball

Unfortunately, unless Rangers get their act together next season, and at this rate there’s no guarantee of it, Celtic will secure their own 55 and be hot favourites to get to 56 before Rangers.

Of course, the 9IAR they had was about as fraudulent as they come, given they didn’t face a full strength Rangers, or any Rangers at all for a chunk of it, but that doesn’t change the fact that with their 54th league title, they are now one away from Rangers’ 55, and unless Philippe Clement gets this summer’s transfer work right, it’s going to be them first to 56 and not Rangers.

It’s very worrying times for Rangers supporters, and we’re seeing a lot less faith from fans in Clement to deliver 56 next season than would have been previously expected, because there’s another problem.

Celtic are guaranteed £70M, inc. SPL prize money, for their certain automatic group spot in the Champions League, and while Rangers can secure a similar amount, we’ll need to traipse through the qualifiers of two rounds to acquire the same funds.

Fail that and it’s the Europa League again and the funding dramatically falls.

In short, Rangers’ £25M budget, despite being a rise on previous windows, will be dwarfed by the spending power Celtic now have – they have a £50M-£100M purse to shell out this summer – and while they might not spend fully that, it’s what they’re able to spend.

This is why Rangers HAD to win the SPL this season, the UCL’s new format next season was deeply lucrative, and Rangers wanted that £65M-£70M kitty it brings in by default (prize money, coefficient payment, TV cash, gate receipts) and it’s Celtic who are guaranteed it.

For them, this title protects them a little against their upcoming European abyss, where the UCL rating system changes to benefit Rangers a lot more, but it might not matter with us failing to win the SPL yet again.

Add to that Celtic being close to their own 55 and Rangers have utterly, completely, f* this badly.

Can’t say even winning the cup at this point will make us feel much better.