Could Barry Ferguson become permanent boss, fan controversy and key Hoops man who proved big loss
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00:00Hello and welcome to the latest episode of National World's Fitbit Talk where we dissect
00:05all the latest news and views surrounding Celtic and Rangers. Joined this afternoon
00:11by my Glasgow World colleague Ben Banks to look back on Sunday's five goal old firm thriller at
00:20Celtic Park. It finished Celtic 2, Rangers 3. A statement win for Barry Ferguson's men
00:27and a result that perhaps not many were anticipating given how good Celtic have been
00:34at home this season. It was Hamza Igeman popping up with the late winner in the 88th minute.
00:39A sumptuous strike after Celtic had cancelled out Rangers two goal lead in the first half.
00:45Nicolas Raskin and Mohamed Diomande put Dibroc's club 2-0 up before Dijsselmeida
00:51and Rio Hatate equalised to bring Celtic back on level terms and set up a grandstand finish.
00:58Ben, we were across the game on Sunday. Overall thoughts? A feeling that Rangers
01:07deserved this victory? I think they deserved it on the first half showing. I'm not so sure
01:15about the second half showing. I thought they dropped off a bit. Understandably the legs
01:19started to go. I'll just take straight from Scott Arfield's commentary on Sky which I thought was a
01:26fresh voice in that sort of world. I quite like listening to it. They must have jumped on a flight
01:31from Glasgow to Prestwick and back again to make themselves feel like they were playing a European
01:35game because it was. It was like they were playing in Europe against somebody. It was exactly that
01:39performance. They can only put in that style of performance against Celtic in this country. They
01:45can't play like that against anybody else who is sitting in and making it really difficult for them.
01:51But I think overall they punished Celtic's mistakes. Very out of character performance
01:57from Celtic especially at the back. A lot of guys who you've came to rely on it from a Celtic
02:03perspective all having a bit of a nightmare to be honest. Kasper Schmeichel was one of the world's
02:09best in his Leicester days for distribution from the back was making poor passes all over the place.
02:15Cameron Carter-Vickers is culpable for the Hamza Igham angle albeit as a tremendous strike to put
02:21it away but it just needs to judge the ball better and that doesn't happen. So I think Rangers
02:27overall probably deserved it because Celtic gave them so many openings to score. It could have been
02:32three or four by halftime. Nico Raskin managing to header home from a corner just can't happen
02:40from a Celtic perspective. He's five foot eight. You cannot let him win a header in your box and
02:47I just quite a shocked result. I think everybody had it down and I'll be honest probably myself
02:55included had it down as Barry Ferguson. This is going to be some laugh. Not quite banter
03:01years type stuff but there's going to be a bit of chaos. It was certainly the most intriguing
03:07appointment they could have made as interim manager. But now if it wasn't for the 49ers
03:13takeover stuff and it was the same board that were going to be appointing the next manager probably,
03:20that's not to say they won't be but if it's the 49ers come in and they take charge of the club
03:24you would imagine that they'll want a certain manager. If it was going to be the same people
03:29who have picked the last however many Rangers managers taking ownership of that situation then
03:36I genuinely think here at the stage now he's had the win in Europe, he's beat Celtic at Parkhead,
03:40nobody since Steven Gerrard's done it. I genuinely think that would be, I can't believe
03:44what I'm about to say but Barry Ferguson would be in the running for permanent Rangers manager
03:49which is bonkers. But fair play to him because I think he's done a lot better than what anybody
03:55would have thought. Rodgers didn't have an answer for the tactics he put on and you can
04:02say they were a bit, it pretty much has dug into the Rangers managers of the past that he worked
04:07with. Walter Smith and these type of guys use their sort of tricks of the trade and is managing
04:12to get results against the bigger teams. The head-banging thing is from a Rangers perspective
04:18is that there is absolutely no guarantee you don't go and get beat 3-0 by Dundee in the next game
04:22which is the most infuriating thing about it. Yeah but one of the things that seems to be very
04:27much at the forefront of this Rangers team since Ferguson was appointed and a lot of players have
04:32kind of been discussing it over the last couple of weeks is this emphasis on character, what it
04:37means to play for Rangers and Barry Ferguson making a good point about how he kind of feels
04:44like certain players in that squad didn't quite grasp the magnitude of playing for Rangers
04:51football club and he's kind of been hammering home that message hasn't he the last couple of
04:56weeks and that all started in the terms of the second half performance at Kilmarnock a few
05:02weeks ago trailing 2-0 at halftime obviously bouncing back to win that game. I still think
05:08it'll take a lot for Ferguson to be under serious consideration to get this job. I still think
05:14they'll be looking at potentially having to beat Celtic again in the final old firm showdown of
05:20the season and potentially at least get into the semi-finals of the Europa League which will be
05:28no easy task given they've got Athletic Bilbao who will be hosting the final later in May.
05:36An interesting one, he's certainly getting the best out of the squad now.
05:42I'd imagine a lot of the guys he's got on his coaching staff, Neil McCann, Billy Dodds will be
05:48also having a kind of major influence behind the scenes and on the training pitch.
05:56We need to touch on a few things in this game. Celtic without Callum McGregor and Ben, Brendan
06:03Rodgers refused to kind of use his absence as an excuse. He was missing through a calf injury
06:09that he wasn't, he was given every chance to recover from in time, wasn't able to make the game.
06:14Rodgers did speak about how he was a miss given, you know, in terms of Celtic's overall kind of
06:22fluidity and he brings so much to the team. How big a blow do you feel it was McGregor missing
06:28that game? Yeah, I think it's a case of with Callum McGregor you don't know what you've got until
06:33it's gone. Callum McGregor sometimes from a certain section of people maybe gets questions asked of
06:39him in these big games, both when he was playing for Scotland and for Celtic, like does he,
06:44can he go and really raise his levels to this type of fixture and he's obviously proven that he can
06:50on multiple occasions but still those dissenters are there. I think those dissenters will be very
06:55quiet after this. I thought Rio Tatti, Arnie Ingalls are good football players in their own
07:03right but they are allowed to express themselves and be the best version of themselves because
07:07McGregor facilitates everything in front of that back four. They can't, they aren't particularly
07:13defensive minded midfielders, they are more get the ball, foot in the ball and look forward.
07:17I thought it was one of Luke McEwan's poorer games since he got to Celtic. I think
07:21he's had a lot of praise since he came in. He's came in for a low fee, has did well against sort
07:27of domestic teams which you would expect. He was one of the better players domestically for one of
07:33the provincial clubs last season but it did maybe look like somebody came in from Dundee
07:38as maybe harsh as that. Nico Raskin is in the Belgium squad and that sort of level seemed to
07:45tell a wee bit at points in this game. Cal McGregor is a huge miss and I think you begin, you sometimes
07:53wonder, Cal McGregor isn't over the hill or anything like that, far from it but there is going
07:58to come a time in the next few seasons where he sort of hits the Scott Brown sort of phase where
08:03he starts to slow down. He's 32 in June so you've probably only got maybe two, three a push seasons
08:12where he can really go at the levels he's at and even at that you're probably only talking about
08:19another season or two a push that he can play every three days like he has for so long.
08:24So this was a real glimpse into what Celtic will hope is the very distant future of Cal
08:30McGregor not in this Celtic team looks unrecognisable and I would say that's the main
08:34reason Rangers managed because Rangers got a grip of the midfield early and Celtic just never could
08:38get it back at any point. Yeah that's obviously an area of the park that Celtic have very much
08:43dominated haven't they in the derby fixtures over the last couple of years. As for Rangers
08:49Hamza Ighaman popping up with a winner, we must talk about obviously a lot of interest in
08:55Ighaman, earned his maiden call up to the Morocco senior national team last week,
09:02capped that off with the winning goal here. Barry Ferguson spoke about him in his post-match
09:08basically saying that he kind of feels he's got a fantastic future ahead of him but he's still got a
09:14lot of areas that he needs to work on in his game. We had reports last week didn't we Ben about
09:22Sevilla potentially launching a kind of big money I think it was around 8 million euros bid in the
09:28summer. Do you feel he's a player that Rangers will look to kind of sell in the summer? I think
09:35if a decent enough bid comes in, Rangers aren't in the position Celtic are in where Celtic can
09:40pick and choose when to sell because they've got cash coming out their ears. If Dermot Desmond put
09:47any of it on at Cheltenham right enough where he was then he probably wouldn't have got much of it
09:50back by the looks of it given how that went but I digress. Rangers really need that guy to be a
09:57catalyst for their player trading model and I get the feeling Hamza Ighaman probably could be that
10:04if they maybe got Hamza Ighaman at this stage two or three years down the line they could probably
10:08sell him for a higher fee than what they'll get but given the fact his form has dropped off over
10:13the last six or seven weeks and still very much a player developing but this was the first kind of
10:18real moment from him in quite some time. Cyriel Dessers is you know he gets slagged but he's a
10:26more reliable source of goals than Hamza Ighaman is at this stage albeit the ceiling is higher for
10:31Ighaman so I think if a decent enough bid came in from say a Sevilla, Hamza Ighaman's legacy at
10:36Rangers might not necessarily be on the park it might actually be he was the guy who they managed
10:41to make a profit on and then managed to build off he might be that fire starter for them that can
10:46then be built upon and you look back in a decade's time and Rangers maybe have something like what
10:52Celtic have got if that is the case then you can look at him as one of the first who really started
10:56that. Just finally then we must touch on obviously Celtic will go on and win the Scottish Premiership
11:03title the 13 points clear and that seems like it might be after the post split fixtures
11:10are announced that they'll get the job done now at this point but that was Rangers first win
11:14at Celtic Park in five years Ben and it was done so in front of away supporters for the first time
11:20in a good while. What was your views on having away fans back? I'm guessing it was
11:25particularly satisfying given a lot had been made about the lack of an atmosphere without the
11:35the away supporters in attendance. It's bizarre that the Rangers fans were in the ground two and
11:40a half hours before kickoff. I don't know what I would do myself if I was a fan in a stadium for
11:46two and a half hours and maybe go and stare at the ceiling maybe bring a you know a card game
11:51with me or something like that but I think overall it definitely adds to the atmosphere you can see
11:56it doesn't. I don't think I think the days of 7,000 are gone I can't see us ever getting back
12:01to that I think there's just too much demand from Rangers and Celtic fans you would have to cut now
12:05four or five thousand of your own tickets to let away fans in which you can't see happening
12:10outside the cup games then I think this is kind of where we're going to be at
12:14but it's certainly an improvement on where we've been at the sort of halfway house of a few hundred
12:20not even a halfway house I mean it was kind of the door and the windows and not a lot else
12:24of you know 300 400 didn't add really much at all it just felt like well what's the point of this
12:31like totally outnumbered and you're having to put on so much security for so few people
12:35so you were might as well going to zero at that point and it definitely adds to it you heard the
12:42the noise that it generates I felt a wee bit more needle there was obviously some Green Brigade and
12:47Celtic board stuff kicking off again because I thought the Celtic actual end wasn't it wasn't
12:52they had you'll never walk alone at the start but after that it wasn't exactly bouncing
12:57but the game obviously plays into that as well Rangers score very early and it kind of kills
13:00the mood a wee bit and obviously they had the Vaclav Cerny stuff spraying Celtic fans with
13:06water and various things you know I think it was Ian Crocker said it's all kicking off down there
13:13stuff so just general old firm type stuff going on in the midst of it as well so
13:21no I thought it adds to the spectacle and it makes the game a more more of a derby
13:27like and it definitely must have a boost for the away team I can't imagine it doesn't have
13:34a boost in Celtic we'll see if that's the same for when Celtic go to Ibrox but just having that
13:38wee bit of your own backing must have a I'm not obviously being on the pitch to experience that
13:43but it must have some sort of factor even for the home team once you go down 1-0 and it's not just
13:48like dead silence there's still a wee bit of noise about so I quite enjoyed it but I think the days
13:56of 7,000 odd are probably behind us this is going to be the kind of new normal. That's it we'll wrap
14:03it up there big thanks to Ben for joining me this afternoon. Football Talk will be taking a
14:10short break with the international window but we'll be back to preview the next round of Scottish
14:16Premiership fixtures where Celtic hosts Hearts and Rangers head to Dundee on Saturday the 29th of
14:23March but before then take care and enjoy the international break.