Barry Ferguson and Celtic mutual loathing finally gives Brendan Rodgers a Rangers equal in one sense only – Hugh Keevins
dailyrecord.co.ukThe true essence of what makes the Old Firm game a separate life form will be released into the atmosphere above Celtic Park this afternoon.
Because, for the first time in 14 years, the managerial match-up of Brendan Rodgers and Barry Ferguson will bring together the positive elements of spontaneous combustion which ignite the fixture.
Not since Neil Lennon and Ally McCoist – coincidentally another pairing of Northern Irishman against Scot – squared up to each other on the touchline in 2011, at the end of a game when Walter Smith had to act as peacemaker, has the crackle surrounding the fixture been so clearly audible.You could argue that a succession of managerial rivalries dating from the time when McCoist replaced his mentor Smith at Ibrox have lacked the intensity that will be brought to this afternoon’s derby.
Ferguson’s predecessor Philippe Clement never really ‘got’ the tribalism associated with the occasion – which might explain why he only won one of them in seven attempts.Likewise, Mark Warburton, Pedro Caixinha, Graeme Murty and Michael Beale were like guests at somebody else’s function when they were in Rangers’ dugout on derby day.Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Ange Postecoglou were photographed having coffee after having met accidentally at breakfast time in a restaurant when they were on opposite sides of the city, which would be regarded as civilised behaviour anywhere else in the world.
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