Exclusive: Former Celtic Boss Martin O'Neill Shocks Fans with Brutal Critique of Rangers

Former Celtic boss Martin O’Neill can’t believe how “poor” fierce rivals Rangers have become.

The legendary Hoops boss used to relish Old Firm derby showdowns with arch-rivals the Gers, and the Northern Irishman famously helped break Rangers’ stranglehold with a stunning 6-2 demolition in his first Old Firm derby encounter back in August 2000.

But O’Neill, who won EIGHT pieces of silverware during a stellar spell in charge of the Hoops, has been left shell-shocked at just how bad their Glasgow neighbours are.

His comments come in the wake of Rangers sacking Phillippe Clement after their disastrous 2-0 defeat to St Mirren, a result that further highlighted their struggles this season. 

The club has now turned to former captain Barry Ferguson as interim boss in a bid to salvage some pride from a miserable campaign.

Rangers were also booted out of the Scottish FA this year, after an even more embarrassing 1-0 defeat to Queen’s Park. 

O’Neill believes the club’s shock exit from the Scottish FA Cup is “catastrophic.”

“Rangers are not very good – and haven’t been very good for quite some time," revealed O’Neill, speaking exclusively to SportsBoom.com.

“Celtic have been able to dominate for a long time, and they’ve also been able to dominate from very early in the season.”

“It’s not as if Celtic have had to wait to be so far ahead, they’ve dominated from very early in proceedings.”

“Fair play to them, but Rangers have been poor, they really have.”

“Domestically Celtic have been very strong and you know, Rangers going out of the Scottish Cup as well, that’s catastrophic for them.”

“With their major rivals out of that competition, well it’s really made Celtic’s life a lot easier and paves the way [to another trophy].”

“To get beaten at Ibrox by Queen’s Park, well that’s like a Berwick Rangers result in 1967. It’s awful.”

“That’s really catastrophic for them and, of course, what it does do for Celtic – with them holding a big lead in the SPL – is give them so much confidence for the rest of the season.”

“You still have to win football matches, but Celtic have done that and performed very creditably in the Champions League and in European football.”

GROWING GAP BETWEEN FIERCE RIVALS

Rangers frustratingly finished eight points behind Celtic last season, the third time in a row they have finished second place in as many seasons in the SPL.

And the gap could be a lot larger this season with the Hoops having powered more than double digits clear of their closest rivals – and that’s despite a shock 3-0 league loss to the Gers in early January.

Brendan Rodgers’ side dumped Rangers out of the Scottish League Cup with a thrilling 5-4 penalty win.

“Domestically they’ve [Celtic] been really strong, apart from one small hiccup against Rangers, but overall, they’ve been dominant,” added O’Neill.

“And, because they’ve got such a big lead in the SPL, it takes some of the pressure off.”

“They’ve lost a big striker in Kyogo [Furuhashi], but at the minute, certainly domestically, I don’t think it’s going to affect them.”

“That’s not to say they’re not going to drop a couple of points, because they may well do, but from a distance you have to say that Rangers have become incapable of going away from home and being able to win games which they would have normally done in previous seasons.”

“And when I say previous seasons, I don’t mean the last five or six, I’m talking about further back than that.”

“It’s looking really good for Celtic domestically and not very good for Rangers.”

“It’s not a surprise at all though to me.”