Old Firm fans need to start asking more from their clubs. Blind faith will get you nowhere INSISTS GARY KEOWN

WE’LL hear it over and over again during the summer as a string of footballers we’ve barely heard of roll in to go where Nat Phillips, Yosuke Ideguchi, Sam Lammers, Jose Cifuentes and Marco Tilio went before.

There’s nowhere else like the Old Firm goldfish bowl. No atmosphere like it. No intensity like it. Nowhere with the same stipulations, the same scrutiny. Nowhere with the same crushing expectation to deliver, heightened by such a claustrophobic rush to judgment.

Only, it’s all a load of old cobblers, isn’t it? If it was this pressure-cooker of high standards and impossible demands, would we really have one club out there trying — and, so far, failing — to sign Champions League-standard players without any recognisable recruitment set-up and the other scrambling around trying to find a stadium to play in less than a month from the start of the season?

The reality is this: supporters of Celtic and Rangers don’t ask anything like enough of those in charge of the teams they support — but they most definitely ought to start.

There will be those in the green-and-white corner, still riding high on winning a league title against a Rangers outfit full of bottle merchants that sacked its underqualified manager in October, annoyed by this.

After all, didn’t the Celtic share price reach its highest level in over 20 years this week? Don’t the champions have nearly £70million in the bank with another £40m from Europe and £20m from Matt O’Riley in the post? They’re the best-run club in the whole wide world, don’t you know?

Why, then, are they four months on from Peter Lawwell’s boy Mark falling on his sword and in the middle of a transfer window without a replacement as head of recruitment? Why, indeed, did they end up with the chairman’s son making an absolute Horlicks of the role in the first place?

They did bring in Mark Cooper, a scout with a solid background, earlier in the year, but the details of his role are unclear. There is certainly no sign of anyone pulling the entire operation together.

Instead, a number of names keep popping up that all appear to be handled by the same high-profile agency. Sure, Ange Postecoglou did fine in his first summer, working with agent Frank Trimboli to recruit new blood, but that was only because he’d walked into a blast zone with no time to waste after Celtic had gift-wrapped ‘10-In-A-Row’. It is not how a club with aspirations of building longer-term and making an impression at the highest level should perform.

Brendan Rodgers, of course, didn’t fancy any of the full team of players signed under Lawwell junior’s watch. He didn’t play them, highlighting how spectacularly disjointed the whole shooting match must have been.

He’s more involved now and that’s fine. However, having the manager run the show is not how it tends to work in the modern world. It is dangerous. It cuts out checks and balances. When was the last time it was allowed to happen at a club of any repute? Well, erm, at Ibrox, probably, when the Brains Trust in the boardroom there allowed Michael Beale to squander £21m last summer on anyone he fancied. And we all know how that worked out.

When Rodgers returned, chief executive Michael Nicholson stated that the strategy was ‘to be a world-class football club in whatever we do’. So to ignore the fact that no one appears to be running recruitment, the most important part of the business, might be seen as a dereliction of duty.

Mind you, actually being ‘a world-class football club’ rather than talking about it is still some way away in many respects. Right now, Celtic are a complete laughing stock at European level and no one appears to care a fig about it — including the support.

Shortly after the Blessed Brendan’s Second Coming, your humble correspondent penned a piece on how he had ultimately failed first time and looked likely to fail again. Oh, how eager the wellwishers were to get in touch following a domestic league and cup double which barely masked how ghastly much of the football had been.

And getting in touch is all well and good. It’s just that a bit of context was missing. First time round, Rodgers turned up at a club that had no credible domestic competition thanks to Rangers still being on ‘The Journey’ and stated that he wanted to make Celtic a last-16 Champions League team within two or three years.

He failed. This time round, a big part of agreeing to come back after all the rancour of his 2019 departure to Leicester City was the lure of doing something meaningful in UEFA competition. Leading the club to another European final within five years was an ambition mentioned in negotiations.

Is there any real determination inside or out to see any kind of success happen, though? Celtic finished bottom of their Champions League group last season. Again. Fate sealed after five games. They haven’t won a knockout tie in Europe in 20 years.

The record is an absolute disgrace and no one really bothers. But they should. Because European competition is going to keep focusing more on elites and you’re never going to be involved at that level — if and when it gets down to invitation-only — if you are never, ever at the sharp end.

Yes, it’s getting harder. Yes, you have to punch above your weight. But being disorganised off the field isn’t going to make the mountain any more surmountable.

The revised format of the Champions League for the coming season should offer Rodgers and his board an incentive, of course. The top eight in a 36-team league go into the last 16. Those positioned from ninth to 24th will enter a play-off round.

Making it into that 24 is surely a must for Rodgers. Achieve that and it can be put forward as a sign of progress. Fail and there should be questions. Not least over what has gone into the recruitment of a squad expected to compete in that environment.

In fairness, Rangers have emphasised success in Europe and have achieved plenty there. It’s just everything else that has been a shambles — being unable to play at their own ground because of problems with work on the Copland Road Stand is just the jelly tot on the Empire biscuit.

Since Philippe Clement arrived as boss, he’s highlighted so many long-standing issues. Terrible management of the transfer market. A need to review medical and sports science. The need for greater quality despite a £64m wage bill at the last count.

It’s the silence of chairman John Bennett that irks most, though, as Rangers try to find somewhere to put a game on. People have paid out for season tickets. Some have invested thousands in Members Club packages. And no one has a clue what’s going on. How long will this go on? Nada.

It’s atrocious — the nadir, really — and speaks to a lack of respect for the fanbase.

Old Firm supporters are special. Their loyalty is the envy of many. The electricity they create on big nights is forever admired. How many other clubs take that number of followers away to European games, no matter where, no matter when?

Their backing — and spending power — should make their clubs attractive to any big-league owners still scheming over future new-look European competitions.

Blind, unquestioning support gets you nowhere, though. Celtic have shown themselves capable of hauling in more than £100m in revenue. Rangers are up to £84m. Both are big operations. Their punters should be getting considerably more in return. And they should be making their demands for that considerably clearer.