Why Rangers aren't providing a guard of honour for rivals Celtic in Old Firm derby
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Micheal Beale has revealed the reason there are no plans in place for his Rangers side to provide a guard of honour this weekend for Glaswegian rivals Celtic.
The two Scottish sides meet again tomorrow in their sixth and final derby of the season, hosted at the 50,817-capacity Ibrox Stadium.
However, it’s already been confirmed that The Hoops are retaining their Scottish Premiership title, beating Rangers to top spot again.
Over the course of the last 10 seasons, Celtic have lifted the coveted trophy nine times while The Gers have only lifted it once.
And it has been announced that tomorrow’s Old Firm derby won’t feature a guard of honour.
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Speaking to Sky Sports, Gers boss Beale said: “No it doesn’t become tricky here because in the past it’s been turned down and hasn’t been done.
"So I don’t think they would want us to. And in a stadium with our fans, it wouldn’t be the right thing to do either.
“We have a lot of respect for them in terms of them winning the league. They’ve clearly been the best team, the league table doesn’t lie.
“But that’s been dealt with in the past so that’s probably been taken out of my hands, thankfully.”
Following Beale’s comments, Ange Postecoglou claimed that his Celtic side not being treated to a traditional guard of honour isn’t a sign of disrespect.
The Australian told Sky Sports: “It’s no big deal for me. Those kind of things seem to be a bit symbolic rather than anything real. Respect is shown in different ways and we don’t need a guard of honour to know that.
“There’s respect between the two sides and certainly between the two sets of players. It might be grudging but they know how hard it is to be successful.
"Rangers won it two years ago and we have won it the last two years so that respect is there and we don’t need a guard of honour for that,” the Celtic head coach added.
As the Parkhead team have already won the league, only pride and bragging rights will be at stake.
However, Postecoglou still believes that the forthcoming match is a ‘big game’.
Speaking to Sky Sports he said: “It’s still a big game against our rivals, I’m sure our supporters will want us to put on a strong performance and it’s a chance to continue our form for this year and finish the season strongly.
“We’ll put out a team we think will win the game for us, but it gives us a chance to look at next year and look at things we want to do and give some guys some game time.
“Once they’re out there, both sets of players will realise it’s still a game you want to win and they will obviously have a support there and it will be a great challenge for us.
He added: “There might be more freedom in the play and helpfully that makes it entertaining.”
Featured Image Credit: Alamy
Topics: Celtic, Rangers, Scotland, Scottish Premiership
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