TOMMY Burns went head-to-head with Walter Smith for three seasons in the 1990s as the latter's expensively-constructed Rangers sides equalled Celtic's record of nine successive championships.
It was a financial and footballing mismatch as David Murray allowed Rangers to slide deeper and deeper into the red by plundering players from the Premiership and Serie A.
Now, though, Celtic have the upper hand when it comes to bidding for playe
rs. Rangers' recent bid of £450,000 for Steven Naismith was derided by Kilmarnock chairman Michael Johnston, while the champions have succeeded in signing Kenny Miller, Paul Hartley, Scott McDonald and Scott Brown in spite of competing interest from across the city.
Burns could be excused for wallowing in schadenfreude, but instead he claims, rather oddly, that Celtic do not currently enjoy an economic advantage over their main rivals. "I think with Scott [Brown], Celtic offered more money than Rangers wanted to pay," he said. "I imagine they have a certain budget, and that might have taken all of it or the majority of it.
"There are also other factors involved. With Paul Hartley, his ambition was always to play for Celtic, so I don't think Rangers missed out because of the financial aspect there. It was a case of someone wanting to play for the team they'd always supported, and the same goes for Scott McDonald.
"There will be times in the future, I'm sure, when Celtic will miss out on a player because he'd rather play for Rangers.
"It can't be looked on as us pooh-poohing them or trying to steal their thunder. According to the club's accounts, in the first six months of the last financial year we made a profit of £18m. Obviously, the run in Europe helped and it puts us in a healthy position. Rangers are being a bit more prudent, and that's entirely their prerogative. It's not so long ago that they were being castigated for having spent so much money without having got to the levels they wanted to reach, so there are different ways of looking at it."
All of which ignores the facts that Rangers had agreed a fee with Hearts for Hartley until Celtic arrived with an improved offer, and that McDonald was "gutted" when Motherwell rejected a £400,000 bid from Rangers in January before accepting £750,000 for the striker from Celtic two months later. Or that Brown used to attend matches at Ibrox.
However, Burns has no doubts that Smith will give Gordon Strachan a better run for his money than Alex McLeish or Paul Le Guen did. "I think Walter has already stopped the rot. They'll look at the recent Old Firm results [Smith won both meetings with Strachan's team] and take a boost from that. And although they lost their last two matches, when there was something still to play for, they were well organised and difficult to beat, and they grew in confidence.
"I think they'll be looking forward to the new season because they gained a lot of plaudits under Walter, and their new signings will enhance their squad."
The full article contains 535 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
