This Old Firm derby is all about Celtic and Rodgers… because Rangers have bigger fish to fry now, writes GARY KEOWN

One look at Brendan Rodgers in the build-up to this weekend’s Old Firm hostilities at Parkhead and it was easy to recognise the eye of the tiger. You felt there was intent in the Celtic manager’s matter-of-fact answers.

An avoidance of the usual cliches. An eagerness to bat the ball into Rangers’ half of the court with plenty of topspin.

It’s not so much that there was anything wrong with what he said. Far from it. It’s great to hear a head coach within the Glasgow goldfish bowl talk openly about the other lot rather than descending into the usual brain-liquefying claptrap about just concentrating on yourselves and not paying attention to external noise.

Rangers really aren’t all that much different under interim boss Barry Ferguson than they were under Philippe Clement.

They do remain wildly inconsistent. Taking in their games is like watching a chimpanzee in charge of a chip pan. A game of jeopardy within which they have the ability to surprise you by occasionally presenting something palatable and satisfying, but, more often than not, will send the place up in flames.

And that isn’t going to change until the current playing squad is stripped-out and replaced by guys who can get the job done whether it’s Fenerbahce or Falkirk getting changed in the opposite dressing-room.

Rangers must prioritise their Europa League campaign after knocking out Fenerbahce

This is the showpiece fixture in the Scottish league calendar but it has less meaning this time

Rodgers was right, too, in making it clear that Ferguson and Co can have no excuses about tiredness or fatigue in the wake of reaching the last eight of the Europa League in midweek. 

Modern players need to deal with mad schedules. No ifs, no buts. They have a huge support network behind them and management teams being advised by sports science – as we discovered in the latter stages of Clement’s time – on overloading and rest periods and maybe even who should actually play and who shouldn’t.

Rodgers was honest, too, about making up for that three-goal hammering at Ibrox in the last Old Firm game of the season. He insists he hasn’t gone back through that January horror show as part of the preparation for this game. He says he doesn’t have to. However, there is no question it is very much at the forefront of his mind.

It’s been burning in his eyes with the intensity of those laser-like atomic heat beams that shot from Godzilla, in the Japanese movies Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate were brought up on, to take down King Ghidorah and Biollante in his own local derbies.

Celtic were atrocious that afternoon at Ibrox. Ripped apart by a patched-up Rangers team that had Liam Kelly in goal, Ridvan Yilmaz appearing in his now-customary right-back role and Dujon Sterling in central defence. By their own admission, they just weren’t at the races.

Now, Rodgers, in the event it has escaped your attention, has an ego. A not inconsiderable one, it seems, given all those stories about Gucci belts and portraits in the living room. Seeing his team dismantled like that will have hurt. Particularly when it happened against a Rangers side known to find St Mirren and Motherwell an insurmountable challenge.

All the discussion of an imminent US takeover at Ibrox – and what next term might shape up like – will keep Rodgers’ fires burning too, if his remarks in the wake of an Old Firm win at the end of 2023 are anything to go by.

‘Over my two spells here, I have worked against five Rangers managers and, every time, Rangers were coming. Every time, at some point,’ he said. ‘So, for me, it is normal. If I listened to media and press then we would be in constant crisis mode or constant fear of Rangers, but it is the fifth manager now.’

Danilo scores the third goal in Rangers’ 3-0 January thrashing of league leaders Celtic

Barry Ferguson hails goalkeeper Jack Butland after his penalty heroics in the Europa League

Delicious stuff, of course. And with Ferguson the sixth – seventh if we count in old caretaker Graeme Murty – he’ll be eager to bat him to the side as well and bring the inevitable capture of the Premiership title ever closer. To show everyone that there is no suggestion his club’s grip on power is loosening – or will loosen – at all.

Look, Ferguson has said all the right things ahead of the flags going up at lunchtime as well. His endeavours to build a reputation as a coach rest, to some degree, on making a game of it. It’s just that victory or defeat doesn’t really mean a lot in the grand scheme of things. The league’s over.

Rangers now have bigger fish to fry in Europe and that’s why affairs at Parkhead are really more about Celtic proving those points left over from last time than the visitors just prolonging what is already a one-horse race.

Ferguson wore his heart on his sleeve as a player. He ran through brick walls for Rangers. That’s his USP. That’s why punters are behind him as boss even though his CV is closer to the level of taking the Sunday morning team from the lounge bar of the Elephant and Bedspring rather than going into battle in the cathedrals of Parkhead and San Mames.

He has to come out publicly and give it some welly – give it all the stuff about hunger and passion and character – because that’s his selling point as the bloke to sort out a squad of players whose collective displays of hunger and passion and character have been way below requirements.

Behind doors, though, he’s got to see that Europe must take priority. It’s the thing keeping this season alive. Every team selection, every decision on fitness, has to be taken with the intention of making sure he can put out the best XIs he can for those two Europa League quarter-final ties with Athletic Bilbao – and anything that may, if the miracles continue, lie beyond.

Ferguson says there are doubts over two or three of the five players substituted in the gruelling midweek triumph over Fenerbahce. Fine. Don’t risk them then. There is talk of mild concern over Vaclav Cerny as well.

If that’s right, err on the side of caution. It is much more important to have him firing on all cylinders for the visit of Ernesto Valverde’s men on April 10 than giving Rodgers an uncomfortable afternoon in a dead rubber.

Rangers should consider resting veteran defender Balogun for the Old Firm dead rubber

Celtic are 16 points ahead of their cross-city rivals, who have European affairs to look after

Leon Balogun and John Souttar are probably the best centre-halves at the club. Balogun is 36, though. And Souttar, excellent against Fenerbahce, especially in the away leg, has an injury record that leaves you watching him with the kind of trepidation engendered by letting the weans have a kickabout in the living room while granny’s ashes rest in that porcelain jar on the mantelpiece.

Keep them protected too. Domestic matches are meaningless now. Robin Far-From-Propper will do for most of those.

This might not be what the hardcore want to hear. Pride remains at stake for Rangers over the last nine games of the league campaign even if silverware doesn’t.

However, the prestige, cash, coefficient points and prospect of glory – unlikely as it might seem – in Europe are infinitely more important. That’s the focus, the incentive. And that’s why this game, outwith any hoo-ha about the welcome the visiting boss will get in the dugout, feels much more about Celtic and Rodgers than Ferguson and Rangers.

Ferguson and Rangers have amazing fixtures on the agenda that that will demand everything left psychologically and physically in the tank, that reek of glamour, can create legend, maybe even offer late replies to the plethora of questions over loser mentalities, lack of qualifications and ability to win matches that really, really matter.

This isn’t one of them.

Motherwell teenager Lennon Miller has been called up to the Scotland squad – and wants to be the best

That’s a big ambition, what with Scott McTominay in such shining form over at Napoli

Nothing wrong with Lennon wanting to be the very best 

Don’t you just love hearing Lennon Miller say that he hopes to be the best player in the Scotland midfield within a couple of months?

Sure, it’s a tall order. Scott McTominay, after all, is doing reasonably well in spearheading Napoli’s challenge for the Serie A title, John McGinn will no doubt be looking forward to captaining Aston Villa in the quarter-finals of the Champions League and Lewis Ferguson seems more popular than tortellini in brodo in Bologna.

However, amid football’s faux sincerity over being humble and biding your time, it is exactly the kind of attitude any young guy chasing success in a world that is merciless and dog-eat-dog at the top level should have.

Miller, at 18, is an excellent and exciting talent and his call-up to the national squad for the Nations League play-off with Greece is well deserved.

He has handled being Motherwell captain admirably. He’s already too good for the Scottish Premiership. He ran the show in the centre of the field when the Fir Park side won at Ibrox at the start of the month.

The big question is where he’ll go in summer. And for how much. Celtic will no doubt be sniffing around again. Depending on the number of dollar bills being dumped in the bank account, Rangers might too.

Guided by his dad Lee, though, the signs are he’ll choose well. A move abroad to understand new styles, increase his education and get regular first-team football would appear an ideal kind of fit if the right offer is there.

Do that and Miller might not quite be top man in dark blue in two months’ time. But in two years, it looks like anything might be possible.

Ferguson needs Igamane to rediscover his hot streak 

Gossip from Spain suggests Sevilla are worried a first full call-up to the Moroccan national squad for World Cup qualifiers against Niger and Tanzania will put Rangers forward Hamza Igamane out of their price range.

Keep playing the way he has been playing in recent weeks – with no goals in his last 11 outings – and they’ll have nothing to worry about.

Hamza Igamane has failed to score in his last 11 games for Rangers – they need him in form

Quite what has led to Igamane’s very noticeable dip in form is open to debate. Bringing Cyriel Dessers back in from the cold didn’t seem to help and there’s always the possibility that spiralling talk about summer transfers has got inside his 22-year-old noggin.

That’s bad news for interim boss Barry Ferguson as the Europa League reaches the last eight.

Getting Igamane, a super talent, back to the kind of form he was in when scoring against Spurs earlier in the campaign will heighten any hopes of further progress, but it shouldn’t be too hard for Ferguson get him back on the straight and narrow.

If roaming around Africa playing against all sorts of two-bob outfits is seen as a surefire way to raise his value and propel him to a lifechanging move, what would dumping Athletic Bilbao and leading Rangers into the last four of a major UEFA competition do? Talk about an incentive to get your head back into the game.