Steven Beacom: Celtic not good enough... and Rangers aren't either

For longer than I care to remember there has been talk about Celtic and Rangers joining the English Premier League.

Traditionalists say it should never happen, though with money king in modern day football, I wouldn’t bet against it some time in the future.

Perhaps more likely as Arsene Wenger suggested this week is the development of a new Euro League. If that happened Liverpool and Manchester United wouldn’t have to face Stoke and Burnley respectively, like they did last night.

We get fixtures like United v Inter Milan, Liverpool v Real Madrid, Chelsea v Barcelona and Arsenal v AC Milan in the Champions League already.

But clearly for greedy clubs, they don’t happen often enough.

The plan is for these superpower football clubs to meet every week!

According to Wenger such a prospect could become a reality in the next decade.

If and when it does arrive, unless something dramatic happens in Scottish football, the Old Firm clubs won’t be invited to the party.

Despite all their vast support around the world, and it is magnificent, Celtic and Rangers are considered second tier at best by the big boys of Europe.

And let’s be honest here, Celtic’s performance against Arsenal in the Champions League in midweek would not have altered that view.

I respect Tony Mowbray and admire his footballing philosophy, and the result and display he inspired in Moscow to help Celtic through to the tie with Arsenal was fantastic to see.

Certainly much better than what was on show at Parkhead on Tuesday night.

The minimum supporters should expect from their team is 100% effort.

No doubt about it the Bhoys gave that against the Gunners but the lack of quality from the Parkhead outfit was alarming. Really alarming.

Aiden McGeady might look good against Aberdeen, but he did nothing against Arsenal.

It’s true Arsenal’s goals had a touch of good fortune about them and they weren’t anything special on the night, but they didn’t need to be.

This was Celtic’s home game. The onus was on them to attack and give themselves a fighting chance in the return leg at the Emirates next week. It didn’t happen. The tie is over.

This isn’t a go at Celtic because had Rangers been involved in a make or break tie for the group stages with any of the English top four, they would have lost as well.

The bottom line is that Celtic and Rangers aren’t good enough to compete at top European level. The only way they will be is to join the Premier League.

Otherwise when these Battle of Britain contests come around over the next few years, Old Firm fans are set for more frustration and ultimately disappointment.

Sourced from: The Belfast Telegraph