Graeme Souness would’ve loved to get on the ball and be baited by 60,000 Celtic fans packed into an entirely partisan Parkhead.
He just hopes Philippe Clement has enough characters in his Rangers camp who feel the same way. Gers head for Celtic Park on Sunday with a sorry recent record in Glasgow’s east end of two points from a possible 21. Among those defeats are 4-0 and 3-0 beatings since Connor Goldson’s double sealed a straightforward success for Steven Gerrard in October 2020. That victory was gained in front of an empty stadium during the Premiership’s Covid campaign.
The continuation of the Old Firm away fan ban means Clement’s crew need to cope with an entirely different dynamic this weekend - an intimidating all-home audience. That would have been right up Souness’s street in his playing pomp. Asked how he’d feel at a hostile Parkhead with no support, Souness stated: “I’d relish it, bring it on. See if we can squeeze 80,000 in. F***, yeah. Don’t ask me, ask some of my teammates - the bigger the game, the better I was.
“The bigger the challenge, bring it on. The Rangers players now have to have that mentality. If you’re going to go there and play and be at your best, you have to believe: It’s going to be all about me today. If seven or eight of them think that, then you’ve got a great chance, not a good chance.”
In the 3-0 and 4-0 home hammerings of Rangers in 2022, Celts struck first blood in the fifth and eight minutes respectively. A rocky Rangers team already playing catch-up in the first month of the season can ill afford to suffer from early jitters on Sunday. But if they’re calm and collected, Souness is convinced there’s no serious class gap for Gers to bridge over the course of 90 minutes. He insists
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