Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers stressed their financial strength had been hard-earned after Rangers boss Philippe Clement claimed the teams were in different leagues in advance of Sunday’s Hampden meeting.
Clement suggested Rangers were preparing for two games against teams who were maybe “financially out of our league” in advance of facing Tottenham in the Europa League and Celtic in the Premier Sports Cup final.
Celtic’s most recent financial accounts showed they had £77 million (€93 million) in the bank and made a pretax profit of £17.8 million last season. Over the same period, Rangers made a net loss of £17.2 million and started implementing cuts to their first-team squad which are predicted to total £8.5 million for last season and this one.
Clement’s comments, made on Sky Sports after his side’s win over Ross County on Sunday, did not go down well with many Rangers fans given their high demands and expectations over their domestic competitiveness.
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Rodgers did not want to go into them in detail but he made the point that Celtic’s financial performance has been built off the back of a clear strategy.
That policy — based on developing players for profit — has also led to a period of domestic dominance which has Rodgers aiming for the 10th trophy out of the 11 he will have contested to a conclusion over two spells in Scotland.
“Listen, Philippe will have whatever he feels he needs to look at,” said Rodgers when asked about his counterpart’s claim. “Within ourselves, I’m only interested in Celtic. Where Celtic has come over a number of years, this is a club that’s been organically grown. We haven’t been handed money. This isn’t something where we have had someone coming in from the Middle East and giving us a load of money. This is something that’s been grown.”
He added: “The leadership from the very top of this club to the bottom is why we have had the successes that we’ve had. We’ve grown that, developed that, and that has allowed us then to win. When you win, that brings more success. For us, that is all I’m interested in ... it’s all been earned. It’s not been handed to us.
“Everyone has the possibility, certainly teams up towards the top, will have the possibility to earn the finances. And if they don’t, then okay. We have to worry about ourselves and that’s my only interest.”
The dynamics in Glasgow’s football rivalry were very different going into the start of this century.
Rangers won their 100th major trophy in 2000 when Celtic were on 78. The Light Blues won another 15 before being consigned to liquidation in 2012 and have only managed three since emerging from insolvency with the formation of a new company.
Celtic are now on 118 and victory on Sunday would mean they go above the total Ibrox trophy haul.
Bragging rights are at stake. Signs at Rangers’ training ground have declared them “the world’s most successful football club”. Dozens of complaints over a Rangers season-ticket campaign in 2013 were dismissed by the Advertising Standards Agency after they declared themselves Scotland’s most successful club.
Arguments over whether Rangers’ trophy count should have started again in 2012 will be academic if Celtic win on Sunday, but Rodgers declared the total numbers were not important to him.
“For me, it’s about the game,” he said. “It’s about winning the trophy. We want to win as many trophies as we can. We don’t necessarily have to tell everyone.”
