I'll take my Celtic licks and it hurts but I stand by Gio van Bronckhorst sussed assessment - Barry Ferguson

There's no point trying to sugarcoat it.

Celtic fans have been giving me a roasting ever since Saturday lunchtime all because I wrote last week Giovanni van Bronckhorst has got Ange Postecoglou sussed. They seem to think I would have been hurting when the Aussie wiped the floor with my old team with a 4-0 win. And they’d be absolutely spot on. Hurting? You better believe it.

It was so bad I had to watch it twice and, yes, and I don’t mind admitting I’m still feeling the pain right now. But if I’m feeling sorry for myself then I can only imagine how Gio has dealt with the past 24 hours or so. He looked totally shell shocked by what he witnessed and I can’t say I blame him. Look, I stand by what I said in the build up to the match. Gio knew exactly how Celtic were going to go about their business on Saturday. And he knew how to set up his team to play against it.

But what is the manager supposed to do when his players take it in turns to switch off at key moments? Once was bad enough. But three times in the space of the first 45 minutes?

That’s completely unacceptable and it’s why Rangers ended up on the wrong end of a really sore defeat. Look, credit where it is due. Celtic are on a different level right now in terms of their energy levels and attacking play. They came at Rangers from all angles and they thoroughly deserved the victory because they were by far the better side on the day.

In fact, I’d go as far to say that they are now clear, red hot favourites to win the title this season because no-one else can live with them at this moment in time. And that’s also painful for me to admit.

But the thing I can’t get my head around is how they somehow seemed to catch Rangers completely by surprise on Saturday - as if