Saturday's first Old Firm meeting of the season arrives later than usual - it is five years since it was played as many as ten games into the season. More significantly, it is also the first meaningful encounter between the two sides since Smith returned.

But while a hat-trick of victories would no doubt stimulate further discussion of the hex, it seems likely that Smith, who knows much better, would dismiss the notion.

So does one of the brightest stars of his first spell in charge, Brian Laudrup. The Dane, who is glowing in his praise of Smith, calling him "a huge influence and one of the most important managers I had in my career", says that his gifts do not - as far as he is aware - include the ability to cast an evil spell over his rivals.

"What he's good at is getting people focused before the game," says Laudrup. "He tells people exactly what he expects of them. He's very calm; he doesn't try to make things more complicated than they are. And what he gets is players who want to play for him. They want to play for their club, and for themselves, but they want to play for Walter as well. That, I think, is his biggest strength as a manager.

"Walter has come back to Rangers and brought ten or 11 new players in," Laudrup continues. "They're doing extremely well in the Champions League, in a difficult group, but Walter knows that will count for nothing if they don't win in Scotland. And that means winning the Old Firm game, because whoever wins that has the upper hand until the next game."

Generally the Rangers team managed by Smith and starring Laudrup did enjoy the upper hand over Celtic during the Dane's trophy-laden four-year spell in Glasgow. Not on his debut, though. "It was a bad one," he remembers of the day Rangers were beaten 2-0 at Ibrox.

But it wasn't a portent of things to come, with Laudrup eventually voted - and still widely acknowledged as - Rangers' greatest ever foreign player. After leaving the club in 1998, he failed to settle at Chelsea and it seemed, briefly, as though a hero's return to Ibrox could materialise.

Unlike Smith, he opted not to go back, and he acknowledges the gamble inherent in such a move.

"Walter has put his image and his experience on the line. It's difficult to go back somewhere where you've been so successful, but I don't see it as a gamble. Or not a huge gamble, because Walter has such huge experience and he knows everything there is to know about the club and about what is needed.

"The chairman [David Murray] made an SOS call - to come and save this club - and Walter responded. But whatever happens now with Rangers, no-one can take away the success he has had. I believe that if one man can save Rangers, Walter can."

Because of the changed circumstances - with Rangers now chasing Celtic - Laudrup admits that "Walter has a point to prove", but he also feels that the outcome might depend more on how the new boys settle than on anything the managers come up with.

There could conceivably be as many as 11 debutants on Saturday, which highlights the transient nature of an Old Firm career. Looking back at that game five years ago - when the two clubs also faced each other ten games into the season, with the result a 3-3 draw - it is revealing to note that only two players, Allan McGregor and Bobo Balde, remain with Rangers and Celtic respectively, the latter only just.

Of the 11 possible debutants, three former Hibs players are likely to feature, with, in addition to Steven Whittaker for Rangers and Chris Killen for Celtic, a great deal of attention likely to fall on Scott Brown, the man tipped to take over from Neil Lennon as the Celtic firebrand for such occasions.

Another former Hibs player who made the switch to Celtic, Pat Stanton, doesn't doubt that Brown has the ability to succeed, and he will be an interested spectator on Saturday - not least because, with Hibs sitting second in the SPL and forming the filling in the Old Firm sandwich, the Edinburgh club has such a vested interest in the result. A Rangers victory or a draw could see Hibs back at the top of the SPL table on Saturday evening.

"It hasn't surprised me that Scott has done well for Celtic because he's such a good player," says Stanton.

"When you are a good player there is no better place to be than at the Old Firm, because you're surrounded by other good players.

"He won't be overawed by the occasion," continues Stanton. "You don't have to know him too well to know that he's very confident. He's nice enough but you can tell he's sure of himself. In the west of Scotland they call it gallus, and it's not a bad thing for a footballer to be at all. He can intimidate the opposition; he looks and sounds confident, and managers love that in a player. You get players who are confident with no reason to be confident - they've got a high opinion of themselves. But you'd have to say that Scott's confidence in himself is justified."

Whittaker has also impressed Stanton with the start he has made to his Rangers career. But he confesses to being a little baffled by the non-impact made by another talented former Hibs player, Derek Riordan.

"There's no doubting Derek's ability," says Stanton. "He's such an exciting player that I thought he'd settle in and score lots of goals for Celtic.

"I don't know the reason but if you don't have the opportunity to show what you can do then obviously you can't show what you can do. The problem for strikers is that they are judged on goals. A forward can perform well for his team, but if he doesn't score then he might fall out the picture."

Stanton's Old Firm debut was also his Celtic debut. They opened the 1976/77 season against Rangers, drawing 2-2 before going on to win the league and cup double. It was also Stanton's first experience of the Old Firm atmosphere - he had never previously attended the derby, never mind played in one.

"I found it quite a tiring experience," he laughs. He adds that next week's debutants are likely to have the same hopes, fears and anxieties that he had 31 years ago. "You just don't want to be the guy who makes a mistake."