Declan McConville sets up this weekend's Old Firm game

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00:00 It's another huge week in Scottish football, obviously European fixtures, but it'll all

00:05 be topped off this Sunday, Rangers against Celtic at Ibrox. Declan, I'll come to you

00:10 first, obviously. Given Celtic's last two results and the fact that Rangers are at home

00:17 for this match, are Rangers the favourites going in?

00:21 Not with the bookies, I've noticed that but I'm quite interested in seeing that. I've

00:28 watched Celtic in the rugby park on Saturday. At this point in time, Roger's side lacks

00:35 a bit of identity to them. When you look at a team where a manager comes in, of course

00:40 he's going to change the system. There's not a clear indication of whether he's trying

00:46 to play football or whether that's the personnel he's got in there at this point in time. This

00:51 week, I think for Celtic fans anyway, is going to be huge in terms of what actually comes

00:56 in through the door because the manager's spoken about getting quality in. As of yet,

01:00 the profile of players that's come in, I think the majority of them are all under 23. There's

01:06 that, there's obviously been the losses of Starfield, Moy, Katar Vickers is out just

01:10 now, Hatati's out just now and Giotta obviously. So there's that. Rangers will fancy themselves

01:17 but again there's that wee caveat that what is the in-mood going to be like? They're either

01:21 going to be in the Champions League group stages or they're going to be out on their

01:24 back side. So again, I think there's a lot to happen. Martin probably before Sunday,

01:29 you know, probably come close to Friday at midnight, we'll have a better indication of

01:33 probably who's going to be getting in, a wee bit more confident. But again, I think Rodgers

01:37 is probably right in the sense that it's not a free hit for Celtic, absolutely not. There'll

01:42 be that demand from Celtic fans and the demand from Rodgers and his players to go and win

01:47 the game. But if you're looking for a pick-me-up, going to Ibrox with 50,000 people who are

01:52 going to be shouting and bawling at you, there's no probably better way to try and get your

01:55 selling in a good way. So yeah, I think probably if you ask me the question, I'm afraid you'll

02:00 have a better answer for you but at this point in time, just everything that's happened this

02:03 week, I think we'll just wait and see.

02:06 Obviously Patrick, Rangers had their own sort of slip-up early doors in the season against

02:13 Kilmarnock. If you want to use that word, that might be a bit of a disservice to Killy

02:17 on that day to be fair. They've looked okay since then but they're definitely there to

02:22 be got at and certainly Celtic are as well. What are the rest of Scottish football going

02:27 to be watching this match? Listen, no one's saying that Hebs Heart's Aberdeen fans are

02:32 thinking there might be a potential chance for them to overtake one another at this stage

02:35 but do you think there might be just that little bit more interest from the outside

02:40 than there normally is given that both have looked a little bit ropey early in the season?

02:45 Yeah, I think so. I think in recent seasons in Scotland, it's been either both teams have

02:52 started off very strongly and you can't really predict what way the fixture's going to go.

02:59 Other times you've maybe had one team performing a lot better than the other. Not really had,

03:04 as far as I can remember, a time where both teams have maybe had a little bit of a, maybe

03:11 not an ideal start to the season. Obviously with Celtic going out with one cup and then

03:15 obviously their result of the weekend, which by all accounts was a very good performance

03:20 by St Johnstone and Rangers obviously getting beaten by Comar. There is a sort of element

03:25 of the unknown, I think, going into this game. I think you look at old firm matches and you

03:30 think well anything can happen any time they're played and frequently does but I think there

03:35 is that little bit of uncertainty over this one. I think as Declan says, certainly at

03:41 this stage in the week, I think it's very difficult to make a sort of informed guess

03:46 at what way it's going to go. You mentioned Rangers having home advantage but we've seen

03:54 it before whether it's old firm games, Edinburgh derbies, Dundee derbies, that sometimes counts

03:59 for nothing. So I think there'll be sort of a few more kind of interested parties watching

04:05 on than there might have been at other points in previous seasons where it looks like a

04:11 formality of what way the game is going to go or there's a very good chance it's going

04:14 to go one way or the other because that's what we've come to expect from Scottish football,

04:18 that's what we've come to expect from games involving Celtic and Rangers.

04:21 [Music]

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