Martin O’Neill – ‘Advocaat’s Rangers would hammer the current Ibrox outfit 12-0’

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The Celtic Star

·26 agosto 2025

Martin O’Neill – ‘Advocaat’s Rangers would hammer the current Ibrox outfit 12-0’

Former Celtic manager Martin O’Neill clearly does not rate the current Ibrox outfit and reckons that if Dick Advocaat’s Rangers team that he came up against 25 years ago had to face the current theRangers side they’d absolutely destroy them by winning something like 12-0.

Celtic manager Martin O’Neill is mobbed by supporters at the end of the Scottish Premier League match between Kilmarnock and Celtic at Rugby Park on April 18, 2004. Celtic won the game 1-0 to secure the Scottish Premier League Title. (Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

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Martin O’Neill watched the St Mirren versus theRangers match on Sky Sports yesterday afternoon and was far from impressed by what he witnessed from Russell Martin’s charges. And having managed in Glasgow himself O’Neill can’t quite grasp the fact that the urgency to win games appears to be lacking, enough though theRangers manager should be very well aware of that having played for theRangers himself.

Speaking on talkSPORT, Martin O’Neill said: “I watched a good chunk of the game yesterday. They’re not very good, Rangers. And they haven’t been very good for quite some considerable time.

theRangers manager Russell Martin. St Mirren v theRangers, 24 August 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

“On any given day, as they proved last season, they can actually match Celtic over a 90 minute period. But there is absolutely no guarantee at all about them traveling away from home, or even at Ibrox, winning games. And that’s been going on for some considerable time,” Martin O’Neill said.

And he admitted that he can’t really get his head around the situation given the lack of urgency in the team when they are looking at going into the Glasgow Derby with a significant gap opening up in Celtic favour and of course that could get even wider come mid-afternoon on Sunday.

Devasted! St Mirren v theRangers, 24 August 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

“It’s a difficult one,” Martin O’Neill admitted. “Russell Martin should know should know the situation. He’s been there as a player. So he knows, and he knows the most important thing. I’ve mentioned about winning, but if ever it applied to football clubs, it’s Celtic and Rangers. You’ve got to win. You’ve got to hit the ground running because there’s a lot of doubters in it.”

Looking back at his own start as Celtic manager in the summer of 2000, O’Neill knew that he was up against a very good Rangers side, although by the end of the month the tables had turned somewhat as Celtic beat Dick Advocaat’s side 6-2 as the balance of power started to shift in Scottish football back towards Celtic. Many Celtic supporters, myself included, can trace the quarter century of Celtic domination back to that unforgettable afternoon at Celtic Park.

Before that though Celtic under Martin O’Neill had a tough start in a Sunday game away to Dundee United after Rangers and won on the Saturday at Ibrox. He recalls an encounter with a Scottish hack ahead of kick-off that left him terrified!

“I got lucky in many aspects because I won the opening game of the season,” Martin recalled. “In fact, I was actually asked a question before the game started. We played on a Sunday, my very very first game. And Rangers were a terrific side in those days. Really terrific. And Rangers had won the opening game at Ibrox and we were away at Dundee United. I was asked by a journalist if we didn’t win that day, was that the league over?

“And that frightened the life out of me, I must admit. Before it had even started. We weren’t even expecting Rangers to drop too many points. But the Rangers side that I was up against then would beat this Rangers side about 12-0.”