It’s a new start for the Old Firm.
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Celtic, aiming for a sixth straight Scottish Premiership title, have started the season with three straight league wins and lead the table by a point from Rangers, who have played a game more.
I’m pretty open-minded about changes in Scottish football.
“Mark, firstly, has done a great job at Rangers…”
Speaking at a William Hill media event in Glasgow, Thompson, who was sent off in his first Old Firm game at Ibrox, replied when asked if Barton could potentially be wound up at Celtic Park: “Joey could, yes”.
It’s a very historic game between Celtic and Rangers.
“It’s a feisty atmosphere”.
The 69-year-old, whose opening goal helped Rangers to their 1972 European Cup Winners” Cup triumph, works at Ibrox on match-day and has seen his old team “struggle’ so far this term.
CELTIC striker Leigh Griffiths is in an Old Firm fitness race after having a scan on his hamstring injury.
“I think it was Ally (McCoist) who was saying we need Hibs, Hearts, Aberdeen, Rangers and Celtic all in the top flight for the good of our game”. “Fans around the world look at this fixture”.
Meanwhile, Warburton revealed that defenders Lee Wallace and Danny Wilson were in line to play at Celtic Park. Especially with almost 60,000 Celtic supporters shouting at them.
With Celtic scoring freely and looking imperious on the domestic front, Rangers fans are looking for their team to lay down a marker in the east end of Glasgow.
“Everyone knows the history behind the fixture and the fact it’s two rivals from the same city, separated by 5 or 6 miles or so, and you’re always going head to head for leagues, Scottish cups and League cups”.
The most tantalising sub-plot to what is sure to be a fraught and frantic lunchtime encounter is the match-up in midfield of Celtic captain Scott Brown and Rangers’ Joey Barton.
I can’t remember the exact words Barton used about Scott Brown when he signed, but it clearly suggested he thought he was the better player. “He’s not even in my league”. For me at that point, it was an opportunity to play in a successful team and to play Champions League football again.
“Will we get there?”
Rodgers, preparing for his first taste of a Rangers derby, has experienced two of the biggest rivalries south of the border – the Merseyside and South Wales derbies.
He continued: “The Merseyside derby was a fantastic game”.
“I’ve said it openly, I think in the last match Rangers were the better team”.
“It’s a huge game, a big game, but one that we want to win, like every game at Celtic Park”.
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“We’ve all missed them the last four years. If you can look back in years to come and say you were involved in this sort of game, especially one where there hasn’t been a league Old Firm game for a few years now, that’s great, and the interest is obvious throughout the United Kingdom and globally too”.
