Celtic v Rangers Celtic Park, today, 12.30 On TV: Network 2, BBC 1

Graham Clark

Martin O'Neill assured Celtic supporters yesterday he was not leaving Parkhead to replace Gerard Houllier at Liverpool. "It's totally and utterly untrue," said the Celtic manager, hours before his team take on Rangers at Parkhead today. "How many times have I got to say it?"

But others are likely to be leaving Glasgow this month, especially if Rangers lose today. Four of their more recent signings saw in the new year in the Last Chance Saloon.

Alex McLeish signed Nuno Capucho, Emerson, Egil Ostenstad and Paolo Vanoli in the summer, partly to take the club onwards and upwards and partly to offset the departures of Arthur Numan, Lorenzo Amoruso, Neil McCann and Barry Ferguson, but they have underachieved to such a degree that none is guaranteed a start against Celtic.

Rangers will not make any public pronouncements on their futures but privately they may be glad to get them off their books. They cost little in transfer fees but their wages amount to around £80,000 a week.

Defeat for Rangers this afternoon would leave them 11 points behind Celtic in the Premier League and end any lingering hopes they have of catching their oldest rivals.

Last season's treble is a distant memory. The fact they failed so badly in the Champions League that they could not even secure a UEFA Cup place, allied to an injury list that has deprived McLeish of the services of Ronald de Boer and his captain Craig Moore among others, has damaged their confidence.

McLeish may have been shaken too. It seems he has been afflicted by the Ibrox transfer curse.

His predecessor Dick Advocaat will be forever damned for spending £12 million on Tore Andre Flo. Previous managers such as Walter Smith and Graeme Souness also spent huge sums on their fair share of turkeys.

McLeish has staked rather less on Gavin Rae. The Scotland international completed his transfer from Dundee, for a fee of around £250,000, in time for him to play today.

Celtic, meanwhile, sail serenely on. They will channel all their energies today through the height, power and aerial abilities of Bobo Balde, Johan Mjallby, Chris Sutton, John Hartson, Stanislav Varga and Henrik Larsson.

Hartson is particularly fired up because another goal against Rangers would mean he has scored in a record five consecutive Old Firm matches.

"You always hope to score in these games and with the delivery we all get from players like Stilian Petrov and Alan Thompson we know we'll get chances," said the Welsh international striker.

"We also know we are a physically strong team and that causes all opponents problems. Frankly, I wouldn't like to have to pick up Stan Varga at corners and free-kicks, for example. So we go into this match, as we do every one, confident. But we are also well aware of the pitfalls here.

"Form goes out of the window in Old Firm games anyway. They'll be up for it and we'll be up for it so I'm sure it will be a great game."

Defeat for Rangers could see them quietly turning their attention to next season. And it could be that Capucho, Vanoli, Emerson and Ostenstad will not be part of the picture.

Victory for Celtic will see them set a club record as it will be their 18th consecutive league win. That figure would see them go one better than the famous 1967 side who won the European Cup and continued their success by going on a 17-game winning run that has not been beaten.

Meanwhile, O'Neill is still "very hopeful" of landing Stephen Pearson without losing any of his own players.

His Motherwell counterpart Terry Butcher has given up hope of keeping the midfielder but wanted to take some Celtic players on loan.

That is what is holding the deal up but O'Neill is confident he will get his man without losing any of his own.

The Derryman said: "I spoke to Terry and the situation would be that we are nearly there.

"There was some talk about some players going in the other direction. But the fact is that some of the players Terry was talking about I would be reluctant to let go."

Celtic have told the Football Association of Ireland they may be able to use Parkhead for their World Cup qualifying matches.

Plans to revamp Lansdowne Road have been put on ice and that could mean the Republic of Ireland soccer team will be looking elsewhere to play their home games against France, Switzerland, Cyprus, Israel and the Faroe Islands.

A Celtic spokesman said: "We have already made it clear to the FAI we'd be delighted to discuss the possibility of hosting future Irish international matches at Celtic Park."

Guardian Service