Predicting the future is like playing spot the ball, there’s almost no chance to get it right, but one thing is clear about Celtic’s horrendous form in the Champions League, and that is their loss is far more damaging than £30 million.

Celtic are no longer a team that the best players want to go to.

And it is certain that Odsonne Edouard and many other key players will want to go to a team where they can get regular games in the Champions League.

So, how does this affect Rangers?

Though it doesn’t really matter what they do, it is clear that many top players would rather join a club that is on the rise, in preference to a team, or a league that is out to prove they are going nowhere.

It is also clear that it is once again Rangers that will again have to do all the heavy lifting, to raise Scotland’s coefficient further, and with a further move up the table it is possible that we could get to the point we no longer need to play the qualifiers.

Note…this task is made almost impossible by the fact the countries above us all have several good teams, who can work together to help spread the load. Then again, when did we ever care about odds?

For those who have not kept up to date of all the various changes, the national coefficient at the end of the 2020–21 season will be used to allocate the number of places for the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League, for the remainder of the 2021–24 three-year cycle.

In English, this means that in the 2021-2022 season Scotland will have 2 teams in the Champions League, one team in the Europa League and two teams in the new Europa Conference League, which starts with eight groups of four teams, and the top two teams from each group progressing.

If this year Scotland slip down the coefficient table (thanks to Celtic’s crap showing), Scotland will get only 1 team in the Champions League and 3 teams in the ECL. That would strongly diminish the Scottish league, which could strongly influence the quality of the players we can buy.

So, once again this is a very important year for Rangers, but the players have been given one more year to get to know each other, and with Rangers deploying a much more adaptable front line, this is the best team we’ve had for over a decade.

And just one more good season in Europe, will see many talented players more than happy to take a chance in the Scottish rain, and head our way.

It’s time for Rangers to show the world we have finished the second part of our Journey and we have now outgrown the Europa league.

It’s time to start beating the champions.