The Auld Firm Duopoly

Brendan Rodgers aka Judas Iscariot is not welcome at Celtic Park.

He previously walked out on the club and destabilised Celtic in February 2019 because he was offered 30 pieces of silver to become manager of Leicester City becoming one of the five highest paid managers in the history of football.

At Leicester City, Judas was hopeless taking the club backwards from a 5th placed finish in his first season to relegation to the Championship last season - an unbelievable decline for a club that stole the 2015/16 Premier League title by corruption.

His repeated selection of Wasserman client Jamie Vardy was a key input to the demotion of the Foxes as he scored just 1 goal in 28 games under Rodger's tenure.

Under the control of John Colquhoun, Judas utilises the same outdated simple tactics of his puppet master, an example being last Sunday's 0-0 home draw versus bottom of the table St Johnstone.

The Perth club had lost to both Ross County and Hearts in their first two league games of the season and both these lesser teams managed nearly double the shots on target against St Johnstone as Celtic achieved.

Luddite managers mistakenly assume that an under performance in a league game prior to a key league match is a sensible tactic (Celtic visit Rangers next Sunday) as it allegedly lulls their next opponents and the betting markets into underestimating the team.

The thinking goes that a very poor performance will confuse video analysts working at Rangers and will prevent so much money being traded on the Celts for the Auld Firm game hence reducing the likelihood of bookmaker-influenced corruption due to an unbalanced book.

There are occasions where this strategy is marginally relevant but this isn't one of them.

Elite managers moved on from this strategy years ago.

Why so?

Celtic threw away 2 points versus St Johnstone while Rangers were gaining all three points in their weekend game.

If Celtic win at Ibrox then the club only gains 1 point over Rangers from the two events..

If Celtic draw at Rangers, the net result is minus two points.

And, if Celtic lose then they are 5 points worse off in comparison to Rangers due to the strategy.

The average reality is minus two points.

Idiocy.

The strategy is also flawed in that by far the most important input to the Auld Firm derby is Rangers Champions League Qualifying match in Eindhoven on Wednesday night.

Judas has put the ball in his own net with an assist by Colquhoun..

The whole appointment of Rodgers in the Return Of Judas reeked with, bizarrely, Peter Lawwell undertaking the signing after the returning antihero was whisked up to Glasgow.

When Lawwell was chief executive at the club, his involvement at the signing presentation would have been expected but as non-executive Chairman, the event was highly unusual.

Of course, there are those that say Celtic's current chief executive Michael Nicholson is merely a stooge and that Lawwell still calls the shots.

As an aside, the Football Is Fixed Network's late lawyer David McNeight was not very impressed with Michael Nicholson's ability when we were in negotiations with Celtic in 2013 - David described Nicholson as "unprofessional" and "an idiot".

There are also those who say that John Colquhoun has captured both Celtic and Rangers for his nefarious strategies.

We only agree to an extent but Colquhoun would appear to swing both ways in Glasgow.

Originally he was the Celtic club agent but his related agency Wasserman now represent 4 Rangers players directly and no Celtic players.

But there are two structures that are highly problematical in this age old rivalry.

Firstly, Colquhoun, in effect, owns both Rodgers and Rangers boss Michael Beale - this is a colossal power to have in a two horse duopoly.

Secondly, both Joe Hart and Jack Butland (the two first choice Auld Firm keepers) are both former clients of the Stellar agency and we have been told that players leaving the Stellar stable remain "on the books", so to speak.

We have been seen information which suggests that the trophies in Scotland are being shared around this season to allow both Rodgers and Beale to claim success.

It is probably worthy of note that Alex Muir, who denied Celtic an injury time penalty in their 1-0 League Cup defeat at Kilmarnock, is VAR Official for the Auld Firm event on Sunday.