Old Firm in shambles: Inside Celtic & Rangers' horror seasons as Hearts look to end Scottish Premiership duopoly

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."

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.

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.

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.

Cavenagh's second go at picking a Rangers manager was far from straightforward. Steven Gerrard, who won the club their last Premiership title in 2021, was sounded out over a return, but the Liverpool legend is said to have insisted now was not the right time to come back. Manchester United favourites Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Michael Carrick were believed to have held talks while Australian Kevin Muscat, best known for his days as a hard-as-nails player in the Premier League, seemed to have reached an agreement before a deal fell through. Ex-Sheffield Wednesday boss Danny Rohl, who was interviewed earlier in the process before backing away, eventually decided to take the Ibrox hot-seat.

At Rohl's unveiling, Cavenagh admitted: "When we became a part of this club this summer, we talked about two things - sustained winning and winning sustainably. Four months later, it has obviously not gone as we'd envisaged. We did not expect it to be easy but we also didn't expect to be where we are today. Part of that was the decision we made over the summer to appoint Russell [Martin] as the head coach. It did not go as planned. Russell is a good guy. He worked tirelessly. He wanted desperately to win and I wish him well but it didn't work.

"If something doesn't work, I think there's three things that you need to do. You need to acknowledge it, you need to own it, which I believe that we have done and you need to rectify it and today is a big part in that. We are happy to have Danny here as our head coach. I think Danny will be incredibly successful here at Rangers. We were incredibly impressed by his ability to take tactics and actually make them happen on the pitch. Man-management - I think Danny will bring out the best of every one of our players and that we will soon see the best version of each of them."

Rohl, unlike Martin, has quickly chosen to take the small wins early doors, donning a suit to his first press conference and wearing black boots during a training session, much to the delight of fans. Among the staff to join him in Glasgow is Sascha Lense, who was Manchester United's first-ever sports psychologist and is the father-in-law of Germany international Timo Werner. There are, however, still grumblings from supporters over sporting director Kevin Thelwell's decision to appoint his own son, Robbie, as head of recruitment. There is hope again at Ibrox rather than expectation.

Across town, Rodgers is under the cosh. He isn't the top target for fan anger, with the board still the main party in their sights, but there is a school of thought he should have left of his own accord over the summer when it became clear the club weren't willing to back him in the transfer market. As such, he is now as responsible for this season's malaise as anyone else.

"We've lost a lot of firepower - a lot of goals - out of the team. There's no way you can go into a race, be given the keys to a Honda Civic, and as you take off, be told to drive it like a Ferrari. It's not going to happen," Rodgers said after Sunday's defeat at Dundee. "So until something changes, I have to find the solutions because, like I said, goals, speed, everything has come out of the team, and we need to find a way to be better."

Back in August, while Celtic and Rangers' seasons were already in meltdown, Hearts sold a minority, 29% non-voting stake to Tony Bloom, the owner of Premier League side Brighton and minority shareholder at Belgian champions Union Saint-Gilloise, as well as Melbourne Victory of the Australian A-League.

Bloom is regarded as one of football's stats pioneers, using his own data to carve out an edge in the transfer market. It's taken Brighton from League One to England's top-flight and into Europe, while Union went from the second tier to champions of Belgium again in seven years. Upon arrival at Hearts and the appointment of Derek McInnes as head coach, Bloom set out his ambitions to end the Old Firm's dominance.

"I think Hearts will have an excellent season," he said. "I truly believe in the squad that has been assembled and I've got every faith in Derek's ability to get the best out of them and to improve them. We've got a very good chance of at least being second this season."

Unsurprisingly, Bloom was mocked for his prediction, but through eight games of the Premiership season, Hearts are unbeaten and deservedly sit top having won seven of those opening fixtures. They acquired 16 players from all over the world during the summer window, including the league's current top scorer in Claudio Braga from Norwegian second-division side Aalesunds.

One saving grace for Celtic and Rangers is, due to UEFA's multi-club rules, Bloom is forbidden from pumping more money into Hearts' January transfer budget. But that the Old Firm have come to even rely on that as good news speaks to their modern downfall.

Hearts' next test sees them host Celtic on Sunday with the chance to move eight points clear. Another domestic loss for the Bhoys seems unfathomable, but they are right up against it and the pressure is already on to deliver a result even this early in the campaign, which will be a situation unfamiliar to so many at the club. A few hours after this clash at Tynecastle, Rangers will take on Kilmarnock at Ibrox as they search for only their second victory from nine Premiership games.

Prior to that, Celtic and Rangers have Europa League commitments to take care of, with Rodgers' side at home to Sturm Graz and Rohl's era beginning with a trip to Brann. Ordinarily, these would be jotted down as extremely winnable games, but such has been their demise that both seem unfancied, with zero league phase wins between them prior to matchday three.

These are dark days from the Old Firm. Both sets of supporters seem distanced from those running their clubs and the results which once papered over the cracks have disappeared. The 2025-26 season could be remembered as one of infamy in Glasgow.