Well, it didn’t take long for Darren Bent’s daft view about Celtic and Rangers playing in England to get shot down now, did it?
No sooner had Bent claimed Celtic and Rangers wouldn’t win the Championship despite both teams being bigger than clubs in the Premier League, Jeff Stelling jumped in to clamp the former Spurs man.
Stelling is a big fan of Scottish football and doesn’t have the blinkers on like most pundits do when he talks about Celtic or Rangers.
And after hearing what his talkSPORT colleague said about Celtic in England’s second-tier, Stelling sent Bent a ‘huge’ home truth about the Parkhead club and Rangers.
With Bent talking about how no manager would leave the Championship to come to manage Celtic or Rangers right now, Stelling wasn’t having any of it.
Speaking to Ben Foster, Stelling tells Bent a few home truths about the appeal of both Glasgow clubs.
Stelling told talkSPORT, “I get that Ben, but with Rangers and Celtic comes the opportunity of winning something, you know, being in Europe.
“I mean, they may not be the Champions League this season but nevertheless, in Europe, they are massive clubs.”
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Foster had a different point of view and said, “Massive clubs. I agree with Benty. I think he’s got it spot on. It’s changed so much as well. You think back even sort of 10-15 years, Rangers and Celtic, it is completely different now.
“They’re a force. They’ve always been a force. But with the way that the money has upped not only the Premier League, but then that’s filtered down through the leagues, into the EFL, the Championship, League One, there’s players in the Championship, genuinely earning 40, 50, 60,000 pounds a week and Celtic and Rangers can’t compete with that.
“And at the end of the day, everybody knows that it’s a short career, and they need to make as much money as they can. So there’s going to be very few players who are going to be willing to want to do it, just to try and experience that European football.
“And I know it’s pretty much guaranteed every year that it’s going to be Celtic or Rangers in the qualifying stages for the Champions League. They’ve both obviously missed out this season.
“But still, I just think a lot of players now are looking at the wages available when it comes to moving up to Celtic or Rangers, and it’s probably a safer bet to stay down in England somewhere.”
Jeff Stelling and Ben Foster on the ‘brutal’ gap between Celtic and Rangers
With Celtic sitting second in the league and in a good place to defend their title, Rangers’ floundering start to the season had Stelling and Foster talking about how ‘brutal’ it is for the Ibrox club right now.
Stelling: “I mean, look, there’s pressure on managers in the Championship, of course there is, but managers of one of the Old F-rm, as Russell Martin found out, you know, you’re either first or you’re last to all intents and purposes.”
Foster: “Yeah, it’s brutal up there and Rangers are so far behind at this moment in time as well. I think they’re eighth, aren’t they, in the SPFL at the moment. They’re so far behind Celtic.”
Celtic have caused Rangers numerous instances of pain since 2012 with a Quadruple Treble, nine-in-a-row and league and cup doubles.
And the way it looks right now, that looks set to continue as Brendan Rodgers focuses in on yet another treble in his second tenure as the Celtic boss.