Rangers will be competing with Celtic, Aberdeen and Hearts for first place in next season’s Premiership League battle, and I will give you three good reasons for Rangers coming first.
In season 2015-16, Celtic played 38 league games in the Premiership and they only won 26 matches, they also drew 8 (16 dropped points), of their games and lost 4 times (12 points), and gained a measly 86 points. You can bet your boots that they will have to perform better than that next season, if they are going to beat Rangers to the title.
Despite losing 1–0 in Gibraltar, to part-timers Lincoln Red Imps with an absolutely abysmal, (but enjoyable for me) display, Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic are incredibly still priced at 1/4 favourites with Ladbrokes to go on to lift a sixth consecutive Premiership crown. Rangers are 3/1 shots to make their top-of-the-table return a very happy one for the blue half of Glasgow, while last season’s runners-up, Aberdeen, are next at 12/1, and with Rangers now back where they belong, Hearts have been pushed out to 33/1, to hoist the 2016-17 trophy.
In spite of their poor form, we all knew that Celtic would be the bookies’ favourites to win the title, because of the four-year advantage they have over Rangers, plus they have less budget concerns, but were the same bookies right about the three reasons for this article’s title?
Leicester, Iceland and Wales. Hardly anybody gave them a chance; in fact, the bookies actually ruled them out of winning most of the games they played. Football is a funny old game!
Following on from a flurry of high-profile signings during the summer transfer window, the renewed commitment from the boss adds to the growing sense of optimism surrounding the Ibrox giants after a difficult four years for the club. Warburton and Weir have been deservedly rewarded for the style in which the club stormed back to the big time, scoring 88 times en route to sealing the Championship title last term. The step up in quality will certainly be noticeable in the upcoming campaign, as the summer preparations have gone extremely well for Rangers.
Those three reasons again;
Leicester, Iceland and Wales. They have shown what can be done with hard work, excellent teamwork, and great camaraderie; friendship and battling qualities, all for the same cause. A team that has all those assets, will always have an excellent chance of beating ‘better’ teams that are much more fancied to win the games, and win leagues and gain major success in various competitions. Let’s hope that Rangers have all the above qualities in abundance, as we have to step up our performances to enable us to beat our opponents who are definitely superior, to last year’s counterparts, with teams that are much better organized and with more tactical awareness.
Our chances of winning cannot be written off by ex-Celtic players, Chris Sutton, Paul Lambert, John Hartson and even our own Michael Mols, because of our forward thinking management team of Mark Warburton, David Weir and Frank McParland, and what they have achieved with the players they have managed to sign so far.
Exciting times are ahead of us this season as we still have all the first team starters of last year’s Championship winning team. We have proper healthy competition for every position in the team now, and this should make a real difference to Rangers this season. It gives the players that extra edge, which can be so vital to keep all the players on their toes, and battling hard for their places in the starting eleven for each game. It also allows for a player who is carrying a slight injury, a chance to rest it for a game or two, before he lets the injury get worse and ends up, being out for a longer period – all these things help.
The Rangers’ ambition of course, is to eventually get back to playing in the Champions League, which I must admit, does seem a bit away, at this moment in time. Then I remind myself of what happened to Leicester City last season, when they won the English Premier League when everybody wrote them off as no hopers. It puts a smile on my face, to see them in this season’s Champions League, giving them a minimum of 3 home games and 3 away games – who would have thought it?
And Wales with their semi final and Iceland with their giant-killing feats;
If these guys can do it – why can’t Rangers?
I remember Leicester winning the EPL but am completely stumped as to what Wales and Iceland won??
So Celtic gained a measly 86 points last season? If you want to look at stats from last season, here they are:
Points per game: Celtic 2.263, Rangers 2.250
Goals for per game: Celtic 2.447, Rangers 2.444
Goals against per game: Celtic 0.816, Rangers 0.944
Goal difference per game: Celtic 1.632, Rangers 1.500
Points dropped per game: Celtic 0.737, Rangers 0.750
League winning margin per game: Celtic 0.395 (15 points), Rangers 0.306 (11 points)
So no matter what statistic you use from last season, Celtic as SPL Champions (despite being universally seen as pretty poor and only winning the league by a margin of 15 points) out-performed Rangers as Championship winners (despite being seen as magnificent and romping the league by a massive 11 points). So if you apply the stats to this season and Celtic are equally as poor as they were last season and Rangers are as equally wonderful as they were last season, Celtic will still come out on top.
3 reasons Rangers won’t win the SPL this season: NOT. GOOD. ENOUGH!
That was last season.
You know, the one where Rangers had a small squad, won the league early then kind of downed tools for the last few games after beating your lot.
Let's now talk this season and the signings made by the two teams, how settled and focused the squads are and, of course, how results have gone in competitive games so far. Yes, I know Rangers have not played many big teams and you lot have been playing tough European games…
Stats don't always give the big picture.
Are you looking forward to our visit in September as much as we are looking forward to it?
Totally irrelevant as both squads especially Rangers will be vastly improved from last season
You both miss the point entirely; the writer of the article was referring back to the Celtic performances last season, so I did the same.
The fact is that Celtic do have better players in all areas of the pitch and a far more experienced manager than Rangers. As for the Rangers squad, it is numerically pretty much the same as last season with no significant improvement except in midfield, so the poor defence is still there (don't harp on about Clint "over the" Hill) and you have an untried kid in Dodoo up front. You have turned over 3 lower league teams (2 at home) so it's hardly a massive boost is it?
Rangers will finish somewhere in the 2nd to 5th position depending on how well Hearts, Aberdeen and the others do. Getting European football should be viewed as a target, but forget about winning the SPL. Ain't gonna happen!
listen SHEERANT,,you and your pals keep thinking your way,,so we can go into the premier under the radar and give you a right good football lesson..that is gonna happen!!!!!!!
A bit of the subject, but I had a idea Why don't Rangers start charging away fans something like £7.50 per ticket. It might sound like a stupid idea but it would set down a marker.There are usually only about 1000 away fans so it wont make much difference and I mean all away fans even celtic.If nothing else it would certainly give us the moral high ground and it would be interesting to see if any other clubs would return this gesture,good idea ? or am I just having a bad morning
Based upon 2 games against Celtic with 8000 away fans and 17 games with 1000 away fans, £7.50 instead of £20 would cost Rangers over £400,000 a season. You are having a bad morning. 😉
Should charge the lot of them double
Realistically, I think we're competing for best of the rest as Celtic have a far superior squad to us, including better quality in key areas i.e. central defence and up front. Unless Warbs can sign a couple of quality players for these positions then I have to be honest and admit we're not yet at the level required to win a 38 game league. However, the signs are good for us going forward and I believe by the following season we'll be ready to challenge the East End beggars!!
Optimistically Rangers should be looking to get a Euro place… That Imps team in 90 degree heat on an 80's plastic park could beat any team in a 1 off game.
You also forget Celtic scored a decent goal and hit the goal frame a few times like they did in the 2nd leg with a legitimate pen chalked off too.
You need luck in preseason knockout games regardless of who you are playing and it seems that Celtic's lack of preseason spend will come back to bite them with their ever increasing injury list.
If Rangers start getting injuries to key players I am not sure how they will cope, especially the ageing players.
Kranjcar, Barton and Rossiter are three reasons Rangers will win the league.
Keirnan, Wilson and Hill are 3 good reasons you won't!
Obsessing obsessed obsession 3 reasons your on here
Bwahahaha win the league FFS �� �� ��
Any chance we can stop getting ahead of ourselves ? Let's get the season underway and see how the team performs before giving ourselves honours.
I want them to win of course but ant a sense of proportion too.
This place is just full of obsessed tramps.
They have stronger players in all positions?? Who's better than Barton and Kranjcar?? They don't have anyone as good as Mckay and Windass never mind Barton and Kranjcar.
Fuck yer 2nd to 5th. Rangers are going straight to no1. Anything else is last.
Rangers will win their first 8 games including the great unwashed away.
Easy easy. #55 WATP RTID
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😇😇😇😇😇
Early days. Different team still gelling together. Probably 1 or 2 big signings in the next week or so…
The footballs getting much better after the shaky start against Motherwell.
A good performance(result unimportant)against Burnley should give us that final lift for our League return.
Can't wait – If we don't win it then we'll be second for sure. Aberdeen are not a bad team after all so no shame.
'BIG signings' cost big money, Dodgy Dave is looking to take not to give. His kid's inheritance is safe unless he plunders that too…
Rangers are his piggy bank and he has the key.
We'll need a few more players as Celtic look strong now and will get another 4 or 5 quality additions. If they get in the CL which looks likely they can get some more quality at Xmas. We cannot compete with that and Rodgers seems to be far better that Deila.
will Rangers win the Premierhsip? of course they will BUT not the first season back after 4 minutes years away…….jumping the gun and expecting them to do that is crazy and its best they consolidate and finish as high up as possible as well as clip the wings of the enemy…….when the finances etc at the club are sorted then they can be expected to be there or there abouts every season winning regular titles (although not every season or itll be boring!) and trophies……what will help football in Scotland is for the other teams to give us a game and make it tougher so that our ability to compete overseas is helped and for pur league to not be seen a a mickey mouse league when for a country of our size…..Scotland has won more European club trophies than France! onwards and upwards, rome wasn't built in a day and the 4 year blip will soon be just a bad memory when the Gers are at the highest standard
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