Scottish football has been dominated by two clubs since forever. The country's first season of top-flight action in 1890-91 saw Rangers share the crown with Dumbarton as joint-winners, while Celtic finished third in the 11-team division. Since its inception, the title has only gone to a team outside the Old Firm 19 times, with the Glasgow duo taking home the remaining 110.
Delve deeper into those statistics and you understand their dominance on a different scale. Not since 1985 has another team pipped them to first place, with Sir Alex Ferguson's Aberdeen side still retaining that honour to this day. Since Rangers returned to the Premiership in 2016, four years after their original company liquidated and the team were demoted to the bottom of the Football League, just twice has an outsider finished as runner up, and even those instances came in the Ibrox outfit's first two years back in the top tier.
But that era of dominance is under serious threat. To varying degrees, Celtic and Rangers have both started the 2025-26 season horribly. Off-field troubles have exacerbated those on the pitch and vice-versa. They are stuck in cycles of calamity, hopeful the next hair-brained scheme will be the one to get them back on track.
Amid the chaos, a new contender for the title has emerged, with links to one of the Premier League's great overachievers. GOAL tells the story of the recent fall of the Old Firm and how they've found themselves in this situation:
Fan protests
Celtic strolled to the 2024-25 title with extreme ease, finishing a whopping 17 points clear of Rangers and giving the great Bayern Munich, led by Harry Kane, a run for their money during the Champions League knockout round play-off, only falling to a stoppage-time goal from Alphonso Davies in the second leg. They had also flexed some financial muscle at the start of that campaign with the Scottish-record £11 million ($14.7m) signing of Belgium international Arne Engels, while the return of Brendan Rodgers as manager had made up for the departure of Ange Postecoglou to Tottenham a year earlier.
Yet there was a strong feeling among supporters that the club weren't doing everything they could to maximise their potential. Where 2024-25 should have been a platform for further success, the fear now is that was the apex before a nasty slope downwards again. A slow summer window featuring underwhelming signings, bar perhaps Kieran Tierney's homecoming from Arsenal, set the tone for a season that has seen Celtic take 17 points from a possible 24 in the Premiership – which is a huge disappointment by their lofty standards – and they have not won any of their four European fixtures thus far.
The typically passionate supporters haven't been shy of making their feelings known. There have been various demonstrations at matches already this term, but none more eye-catching than Sunday's during a 2-0 loss away at Dundee, with away fans throwing tennis balls and oranges onto the Dens Park pitch. It came as part of the 'Not Another Penny' campaign, with Celtic followers urging one another not to give their hard-earned cash over to the club. Despite those upstairs at Parkhead opening their doors for talks with the Celtic Fans Collective, who represent several supporter groups, they still don't see eye to eye.
A statement from the CFC on Monday read: "At yesterday's match, the Celtic Fans Collective conducted its latest protest action as part of the ongoing campaign against the Celtic board. On the kick-off whistle, fans threw a mixture of balls and tangerines onto the park. This caused a short hold-up to the game where Celtic board members were once again exposed live on TV as thousands of supporters loudly and clearly sent a message that the current board is unfit for purpose.
"Unfortunately, the team's performance was symptomatic of the current state of the club and what fans watched was a direct consequence of the failed strategy of the board. Yesterday's result underlined the urgent need for change in the boardroom with a looming January transfer window which will be critical to the success of this season.
"It is self-evident that we cannot approach January with the same complacency and arrogance that we have seen in recent windows and that a change in approach is required. Through the 'Not Another Penny' boycott initiative and further actions, the Celtic Fans Collective will continue to coordinate activity to force positive change and hold the Celtic board to account."
AdvertisementGetty Images SportFalse dawn
On the blue side of Glasgow, Rangers headed into 2025-26 with sweeping changes at all levels. A consortium, led by Andrew Cavenagh and the investment arm of NFL franchise San Francisco 49ers, purchased a 51 per cent stake in the club at the end of May. Cavenagh himself was put in charge atop the Ibrox hierarchy, while Paraag Marathe, the chairman of Leeds United, was made his vice-chair.
A gleeful Rangers statement read: "The consortium will chart a new strategic vision for the club's future prioritising on-pitch performance and long-term financial sustainability. The new leadership has committed to invest £20 million into the club at this time, which will be subject to shareholder approval at the General Meeting on 23 June 2025."
Cavenagh himself said: "We are deeply grateful for the trust placed in us by the Rangers Board, shareholders, staff, and supporters. This club's history and traditions speak for themselves, but history doesn't win matches. We know that the true way to honour the club's heritage will be to drive performance. Our focus is simple: elevate performance, deliver results, and bring Rangers back to where it belongs – at the top."
First up on the 49ers' in-tray was the appointment of a new manager. The last permanent boss, Philippe Clement, was sacked all the way back in February, with club legend Barry Ferguson taking charge until the end of the season on an interim basis. Their search led them to Russell Martin, who had been out of work since December 2024 when he was fired by Premier League basement club Southampton, while Carlo Ancelotti's son Davide was their second-choice.
Martin was famed for his possession-heavy style and uncompromising principles. That stern determinism may have gone down well with some fanbases, but not the traditionalist folk of Rangers.
Getty Images Sport'Worst-ever manager'
Martin ought to have known more about the job he was walking into and what was expected of him given his 29 caps for Scotland and one-season stint at Rangers during his playing days. Instead, he ignored all the flashing signs and warnings, choosing to walk his own path to the sack.
The jobs at Rangers and Celtic are as much about public relations as they are about what happens on the pitch. Martin was aware of that, yet at every step chose to burn bridges. He refused to wear a suit, as was tradition in the Ibrox dugout, as he infamously claimed it made him too sweaty. From day one, he was not a man of the people.
The rift between supporters and manager went beyond the footballing philosophy, which in itself proved disastrous as players often found themselves confused at what was asked of them and creating more opportunities for the opposition rather than their own team – Rangers gave up an incredible 104 shots during Martin's first five matches at the helm, to best demonstrate this point.
Martin pleaded with the fans to give he and his players time to implement his footballing ideals. Yet after every drab result – and there were many of them – he pointed to his squad's technical and mental limitations as the go-to excuse, shirking the blame from the clear tactical deficiencies and weaknesses that were being exploited by other teams every few days.
After drawing 1-1 at Motherwell on the opening weekend of the Scottish Premiership campaign, Martin launched an extraordinary tirade towards his players that set the tone for the doomed weeks ahead: "I'm very disappointed and a bit hurt and a bit angry at a lot of stuff I saw. Motherwell were really good, credit to them. But I said to the players, the problems haven't been tactical, yet. They've been mentality, about energy, about courage, intensity, aggression, to play.
"Every time we get in the final third, we turn the ball over and make crazy decisions. They're either selfish decisions or they're based on anxiety, so we need to get to the bottom of that. Because there was far too much stuff that we haven't worked on or haven't seen… Too much ego, too much self-preservation, and you're either all-in all the time or you're not. And if you're not, you just won't play very much."
Martin then had the gall to claim this was not him "digging out" his players, rather taking responsibility himself as the head coach. It didn't wash. The manager went on making himself wildly unpopular to the point that supporters must have thought he was doing an 'Impractical Jokers' skit. When Max Aarons scored a 94th-minute winner at Livingston on September 28 – still Rangers' only Premiership win all season – the rebellious away contingent celebrated little and instead chanted, "Martin, get to f*ck".
One week later, following a 1-1 draw at Falkirk that saw the 39-year-old have to be escorted off the premises by police due to fears over his safety, Rangers sacked Martin. He is already considered the club's worst-ever manager, and the 49ers have massively failed the fans during their short tenure.
Getty Images SportChampions League failures
Given how much of a walkover the Premiership tends to be for the Old Firm, the success of their respective seasons also largely hinges on progression into the Champions League. Celtic had only one qualifying round to contend with this summer, while Rangers had to navigate three of them.
We'll start with the Bhoys, considering their tale is much shorter and more straightforward. They were drawn against Kazakhstani minnows Kairat Almaty and were widely expected to reach the league phase, even despite the growing gloom from the stands. As it turned out, they were right to be sceptical. Rodgers' men were taken all the way to penalties after over 210 minutes of goalless action, with Kairat prevailing 3-2 in the shootout. Post-match, Rodgers lamented Celtic's lack of progression and hinted they had taken a step backwards, with fan anger reaching new levels having failed to replace star forwards Nicolas Kuhn, who joined Como, and Kyogo Furuhashi, now at Birmingham City after a six-month stint with Rennes.
"It's bitterly disappointing, because we were on the right track last season and working really well and playing really good football, so to not be in there this season is a huge blow for us. We missed a massive opportunity over these two games," Rodgers said. "We showed last year the strides I felt we took but you have to build on that. The last thing you want to do in football is manufacture your own stress, but all we can do now is look at where we're at as a football club and decide where we want to go."
Rangers' story was far more calamitous. They managed to eliminate Panathinaikos and Viktoria Plzen by two goals on aggregate each to set up a tie with Club Brugge. Martin and Co were given little hope after losing the first leg 3-1 at Ibrox, before a humiliating 6-0 hammering followed in Belgium, which equalled the club's worst defeat in Europe.
"To the fans, I have nothing but an apology," Martin said at his press conference. "I'm very sorry they had to witness that. It's humiliating and it's painful. There's disappointment and hurt that they've had to go through that. I don't think I've learnt anything new tonight, I'm just embarrassed by the defeat. It's probably the toughest night I've had as a head coach."
Martin picked a metaphorical fight with midfielder Nicolas Raskin, widely viewed as Rangers' best player. He was dropped for the second leg in Belgium and is said to have questioned the manager's game-plan during a brutal half-time team talk. Neither man backed down, but the fans sided with Raskin, not least because they had a common enemy in the gaffer.
Rather fittingly, the first Old Firm derby of the season came days after each side were relegated into the Europa League. It proved to be bland, hesitant and sometimes anxious 0-0 draw, ending an eight-year run without a goalless fixture between the two.