Scotsman deputy editor Alan Young talks football with sports editor Mark Atkinson the day after Celtic win the Scottish title
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00:00 Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Thursday. I'm Alan Young, I'm
00:12 Deputy Editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined today again by our Sport Editor Mark Atkinson
00:17 to take a look back at the night of action. Hi Mark.
00:22 Good morning Alan.
00:23 Let's have a look at the front page first.
00:26 We splash through our story from our Westminster correspondent Alexander Brown. Alistair Jack,
00:33 Scottish Secretary, talking about plans for a new Scottish nuclear power plant. How could
00:38 that be you might ask because the SNP have already said that none will be built in Scotland.
00:43 Well he is looking ahead to a time, perhaps optimistically, for him when a Unionist party
00:51 is in charge in Scotland. A really interesting story there as the debate over nuclear power
00:56 continues. At the top of the page you can see we record Celtic clinching the title last
01:05 night in pretty emphatic style and that is where I'll start with Mark. So Mark, it was
01:12 going to happen at some point and it happened last night and they certainly finished it
01:17 in style.
01:18 They did. Brendan Rodgers had asked his Celtic team to sprint across the finishing line.
01:23 I think we could say they burst through it with a five star performance, a very, very
01:29 convincing victory against a Kilmarnock team that don't forget has beaten Celtic twice
01:33 on that plastic pitch this season. But if you look at the Celtic team that last lost
01:40 to Kilmarnock in December and compare it to the Celtic team that won last night, the improvement
01:46 is stark. Deserved champions. They have the best squad but crucially they had the character
01:53 and the mentality to deal with Rangers' resurgence and deal with their own dip in form and criticism
02:01 of the manager and the players. Worthy champions, very pleased with Brendan Rodgers who I think
02:06 has come under quite a lot of flack and yeah, he'll be waking up this morning potentially
02:11 with a sore head after some celebratory drinks last night but he'll be delighted and feel
02:17 vindicated that they've got their hands on their title.
02:23 As you say, the best squad in the league and deserved champions. There has however been
02:29 quite a lot of comment this week elsewhere about the overall standard of the league this
02:36 season and it's fair to say it's not the strongest Celtic team we've ever seen.
02:41 Yeah, I'd agree with that and to be honest I think in the cold light of day people at
02:46 Celtic would agree with that too. The club came out after the transfer window in January
02:51 and said they hadn't strengthened as well as they wanted to. There's a lot of work to
02:54 be done at Celtic Park. They're clearly the best team in the country but I would say that
02:59 both old firm clubs are far from vintage. Some people would argue that Celtic have regressed
03:05 from this time last year when Ange Posta Coghlu was in charge. Certainly the exciting football
03:13 hasn't been there all the time under Rodgers but I think last night was not just a title
03:20 winning victory but it was potentially a sign of what could happen at Celtic if they have
03:25 all their key players fit because for a lot of the season they've had them out injured
03:28 and if they can get the right people in in the right places to improve the team.
03:33 Yeah, I agree. Not a vintage Celtic but there's plenty to build upon. The big question I suppose
03:38 is will they be able to hold on to some of their best players?
03:40 Indeed and the season's not over yet obviously. There's still another game to go and then
03:46 the Scottish Cup final which is against the old firm. Foes, Rangers and I suppose it would
03:55 be good to talk a little bit about where Rangers are at.
04:00 Depleted at the moment you could say with Rangers. Ravaged by injury and suspension.
04:05 They play Hearts on Saturday in their final Premiership match while Celtic are getting
04:08 the trophy against St Merne and then as you say the Scottish Cup final a week later. Rangers
04:14 will hope to have some of their players back. They did beat Dundee 5-2 on Tuesday having
04:20 gone 2-0 down. The character of this Rangers team cannot be questioned. They keep going
04:25 right to the end. They're invested but they are missing a lot of players and they also
04:31 need to try and salvage something from this season. They have won the League Cup. That
04:36 was a long time ago. If they go into the summer having lost the League and the Scottish Cup
04:41 to their rival Celtic it's going to make the atmosphere around Philippe Clermont far more
04:49 turbulent than it is right now. So yeah, the season's not over. We've got a big 10 days
04:53 and it's not just in the title race as well. We'll find out this weekend whether it's St
04:57 Johnstone or Ross County that will drop into the play-offs. So there's still a few matters
05:03 to be settled and there's still a lot of excitement to come in the Premiership and the lower leagues
05:08 before the Euros.
05:10 Absolutely. Looking forward to it. Thanks very much Mark. Please keep an eye on scottsman.com
05:13 throughout the day for all the very latest news and sport. If you can do subscribe then
05:18 you'll be able to read and watch everything on the site and if you're out and about today
05:22 please do pick up a copy of the paper from me and from Mark. Bye for now.
05:27 [Music]