‘Celtic are in for a rude awakening next season – there’s something happening at Rangers’
Celtic are aiming to win their fifth Scottish Premiership crown in a row next season and their 56th overall.
Currently both the Hoops and their arch-rivals Rangers have 55 domestic titles to their name, with nothing to split the Glasgow pair.
Last season, Brendan Rodgers’ side cruised to league success, beating the Gers to top spot by a massive 17 points.
Rangers are now under the ownership of 49ers Enterprises, and have a new manager at the helm, in the form of ex-Southampton boss Russell Martin.
Aberdeen’s former chief Keith Wyness – who served as CEO at Pittodrie between 2000 and 2004, had lengthy spells as the chief of Everton and Aston Villa and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – believes that Celtic could be in for a shock next season, as their Glasgow rivals have “woken up”.
‘Celtic board are falling asleep at the wheel’
Speaking on the new edition of Football Insider’s Inside Track podcast, Wyness insisted that Celtic will not ease to the title next season like they have done for the past few years, and need to strengthen to fend off any Rangers challenge.
So far this summer, the Hoops have only spent around £1million on new signings, as well as losing winger Nicolas Kuhn to Como.
Wyness added that the Celtic fans may start to worry that the board are “falling asleep at the wheel” and underestimating Rangers ahead of the new campaign.
He told Football Insider‘s Inside Track podcast: “I think there’s an interesting dynamic, Celtic are four-time champions now, and that’s happened at a time when Rangers have basically been in turmoil.
“Rangers have been way off the pace for the last four years, so Celtic have had it gifted to them. I think Rangers have woken up and I think there’s something happening over at Ibrox that could give Celtic a bit of a concern.
“I would hope that if I were a Celtic fan that the board isn’t falling asleep at the wheel here, thinking we’re going to carry on, number five will automatically come, and we don’t really care what Rangers are going to do.
“They may be in for a rude awakening and I think they’re going to have to strengthen. I’m surprised they haven’t moved a little bit quicker in the transfer window, given the European games coming up, where Scottish clubs have got that curse.
“They haven’t and there just seems to be this preoccupation with keeping that bank balance as high as possible.”
Celtic winger set for exit
Meanwhile, Football Insider has exclusively revealed that Celtic’s out-of-favour winger Luis Palma is set to leave the club to join Polish side Lech Poznan on loan.
Palma, 25, is well down the pecking order at Celtic and spent the second half of last season on loan at Olympiacos, where he scored one goal and provided one assist in 11 appearances for the Greek giants.
The Honduras international was left out of Celtic’s squad for the training camp in Portugal so he could sort out his future.
Palma turned down offers from the EFL Championship, Turkey and MLS to join Lech Poznan, who will play in Europe next season as they aim to qualify for the Champions League.
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