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The plan for Glasgow was very different to what we have today, the city was going to be unrecognisable in many, many ways. Some plans just don’t work out. Emerging from the horror and brutality of the Second World War Glasgow was surprisingly unscathed compared to many other European cities. Yes, it had suffered bombing in the early part of the war and, of course, nearby Clydebank had experienced extensive devastation but the centre of Glasgow, the heart of Scotland’s largest city, the industrial powerhouse of the empire, the beating heart of the heavy industry that powered much of the world, was largely intact. That was the problem. In 1945 Glasgow’s Master Of Works and the city’s Chief Engineer, Robert Bruce, produced plans that would have transformed the city centre. Not only would the majority of warehouses and markets that today make up the Merchant City have been demolished but so would Central Station, the Mackintosh designed School of Art and, arguably the city’s finest building, the City Chambers. These awe-inspiring architectural masterpieces would have been pulled down and a new ‘Modernist’ inspired city centre built in their place. Try and imagine a new city chambers built on the north bank of the Clyde, with new law courts beside them. The city would have two new train stations, one roughly where Queen Street Station stands today and new huge ‘South Station’ built on the south side of the Clyde close to the river. Literally thousands of new buildings would need constructed, business and people would be decanted, streets disappear, familiar landmarks reduced to rubble and replaced with grandiose civic centres and new arterial roads. Its scale and ambition was breath taking and it was actually given initial planning approval by the city corporation. An exhibition at the Kelvin Hall was planned for 1947 where the plans for the new city would be shown to the public. Thankfully a mixture of public concern, political influence and simple economics led to the Bruce Plan being shelved before the exhibition could take place. Whilst you could admire the ambition of Bruce, he lacked the understanding of what makes a city great; namely it’s people, and you underestimate the people at your peril. This weekend might just see another plan for Glasgow begin to unravel. Rangers weren’t meant to challenge again. The club had been dealt if not a fatal blow certainly enough hits to put it down and keep it down for a long time. Or so some people hoped. With unfettered access to the Champion’s League and all the money, profile and prestige that goes with it Celtic, this weekend’s visitors, were ideally placed to capitalise on whatever Machiavellian plans European football’s elite have next. They could hoover up all the sponsorship, corporate hospitality and public identity the city has to offer too, after all who was going to stop them? Rangers, a seeming basket case a matter of months ago, were a club unable to attract the Rangers supporting, Renfrewshire based Aberdeen manager, a club unable to win three games in a row, a club unable to defend a lead at home. Yet, here we are. Where are we exactly? Well, we’re second in the league, unbeaten in the last six matches and have only lost once this year. So we’re not where we want to be but we’re a lot closer to it than we have been for a while. It’s not just the victories that have excited the support, it’s their manner too. We’re fluid, fast and well balanced. Goals are being scored across the team, chances are being created regularly, players are linking up well, there seems to be an understanding now particularly middle to front. More pleasingly we seem to have some fight about us again. We win the 50/50s now, we’re competing all across the pitch, we’re not being bullied and put off our game. It’s remarkable to write this, as this team is really only two months old. The signings of Murphy, Docherty, Martin, Goss and Cummings have galvanised, strengthened and improved a squad that stuttered from week to week prior to their arrival. Added to that we’ve seen Tavernier and Windass emerge as important players, Bates now looks like a Rangers defender and Morelos gets the kind of service and support his superb forward play deserves. This has all been achieved under the guidance of a rookie youth team manager forced into the hardest job in Scottish football whilst the club very publically courted someone else. It’s funny how some plans don’t work out. Before I get too carried away a word of caution. This Celtic side are still capable of scoring goals and winning matches. Their form hasn’t been as good as last season but it’s still better than anyone else in the league and we’d do well to remember that. They have some injuries and some players seem to be out of form, but they’ve still only lost 2 matches all domestic season and have the experience and confidence to harm us if we’re not careful. Whatever our current feelings of renewed confidence we’ve not beaten Celtic since that glorious day at Hampden 2 years ago and a lot has changed at both clubs since. Sunday will be a stern test and one we’re not favourites to win. I’d be surprised if our starting XI is very different from the side that’s largely picked itself in recent weeks. If fit I expect Murphy to return to the side at the expense of Cummings. Foderingham should also return for league duty. Tav, Bates and Martin should start alongside the only real quandary in the side. A fit Wallace should be our first choice left-back but I’m not sure he’s as fit as he needs to be yet. A run out in a friendly against a Championship side is no preparation for a top of the table challenge. If fit John will start, if not I expect Halliday to play at left back. I expect a midfield of Candieas, Goss, Docherty and Murphy with Windass and Morelos up front. That side has four players making their ‘Old Firm’ debut, a match where experience counts and our central midfield is young and has only played a handful of matches together. Amid my expectation and optimism the realist in me is a little nervous. Despite that we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that it wasn’t meant to be this close. We were meant to be languishing somewhere between Aberdeen and Hibs, turning baliffs away from Edmiston Drive, watching our best players leave for sweetie money and our signings struggle to meet expectations. We’re supposed to be bystanders watching Celtic’s procession to another league title and potential Champion’s League spotlight. That was the plan. Sometimes even the most ambitious plans, whether well intentioned or nefarious, don’t come to fruition. Glasgow doesn’t belong to Celtic, never let them forget that, this is our city too and they don’t get to redesign it without our permission. It’s pleasing we’re not giving it again.

An image of someone looking like they're being kicked in the face isn't political correctness, it's rank thick-headed stupidity.

What a man.

When you listen to Murty, the players and all the fans I know, there's no sense of pressure, only excitement. Of course we all want to win these games, and for the first time in a long time we are confident of doing that, but there's certainly no pressure to do it. If we lose, the media will say it was expected. If we lose, we will be reminded of how superior Celtic's financial position is to ours and that they spend twice as much on salaries than we do. If we lose, the fans, players and manager will be very disappointed but providing it's not a humiliation we will look on to the next game with anticipation, realising that we are still building a new team and style under Murty. That doesn't sound like pressure to me. But, if we win ........ it will cause an absolute implosion over there. We will take so much more confidence into our next games, including the semi final, while their fans mount pressure on their manager, players and board to make changes. It will cause them to question what the hell happened to all the money they had to ensure we never caught them ever again while we were rebuilding for all those years. Meanwhile, we'd be having a party, doing the bouncy and having a good laugh at the BBC who would then be contemplating an end of season where they choose not to be at the title winning team's stadium for the celebrations, pictures and interviews. Oh yes, there's pressure alright, but not on us. Bring it on!

Excellent stuff. Absoloute gem of a player

What a bunch of morons.

Back in 1955 the old league cup section we played our greatest foes in the return tie after taking a four to one defeat at home so it was off the their place for the second game it started a bit earlier a quarter to seven cant remember why , any way we made one change and in four minutes Sammy Baird banged in the first of his two goals adding them to one each for Max Murray and Simpson we ran out winners and do you know Alex Scott rattled the woodwork twice in that game . Oh yes those were the days my friends . Niven , Caldow , Little .McColl , Young and Rae , Scott , Simpson and Murray , Baird and Hubbard .

Brilliant match preview, John Mc. I think you should be in on the team talk too Time to take Glasgow back.

Pressure entirely on them. They're going to go on and win the league and they're financially so far ahead of us it's insane. That said, there's cause for optimism, they've faltered lately and aren't as invincible as some would have us believe. Not sure about anyone else but I've got a cheeky £5 on us to win the league at 66/1 giving me a nice £335 if we can do it! Just imagine the melt down across the city (and in the media) if we managed to beat them in both legs of the double header, it could be spectacular!

I remember beating them 4-0 at Ibrox in the Advocaat era. Think the league was already won. Sun was shining, Gio scored the fourth with a lovely curling effort and did the ‘Ravanelli’ style celebration. Excellent day all round!

For the first time in a while I'm genuinely looking forward to an Old Firm match. Why? Because, as much as we outplayed Celtic for long periods in the last game (and we did well at times at Ibrox too in the defeat there), we now carry a proper threat. We're dangerous, we create chances and we score goals. Celtic do that too and remain favourites because of their experience but, perhaps for the first time in a long time, they do have to think about us as much as their own game. And when that happens, often times they struggle - as does their manager. Bring them on.

Jock Wallace's battle fever management would not survive the sneers It is an immutable law of pub talk that if you introduce the topic of Brian Clough, you will hear at least one of the following cliches within 60 seconds: He was the best manager England never had, he was the best manager of all time, and he could not have thrived in the modern game. . What you are less likely to hear is an exploration of the uncomfortable paradox, that Clough was exceptional then but would be unsuitable now, and to what extent that reflects poorly on modern football. Fans regularly lament the extinction of the hard man, yet just as striking is the disappearance of the hard manager. If Clough's instinctive idiosyncrasy was his major strength, then his regular demonstrations of the toughest love were also integral to his unparalleled success. He would regularly get his players to run through nettles, and once slugged Roy Keane to the floor as punishment for playing a backpass. Clough's mentor was Harry Storer, a man who proudly boasted: "I have a team of bastards, and I am the biggest bastard of them all." This was an era when masculinity was an extreme sport, when household items like tea cups, plates and hairdryers found an alternative use or an alternative meaning. It was not just a British trait. The legendary Internazionale coach Helenio Herrera once ordered two players to walk six miles back to the team base because they were 20 seconds late for the coach. Nobody encapsulated that school of management better than the late Jock Wallace, one of Rangers' greatest managers. Wallace was a chillingly hard man with a granite face, an even stronger will, and a voice that rarely softened from its default growl. His army background shaped so much of his management. Wallace was stationed in Northern Ireland and the Malay peninsula in the 1950s, engaged in jungle warfare and surviving by eating what he called "monkey steaks". Wallace's militarism was such that his dressing room might have been a scene from the film Full Metal Jacket. Gary Lineker recalls a reserve game at Leicester when, at half time, Wallace threw him against a wall. Leicester were 2-0 up. Lineker had scored them both. His most famous act at Leicester was to introduce a gloriously sadistic form of pre-season training. During his time at Rangers, while having a picnic with his wife, Wallace stumbled across the sand dunes of Gullane, jauntily entitled "Murder Hill". He made his players run up and down the hill until they could run no more – and then he made them do it again. When he got to Leicester, Wallace scouted a similar incline. There is a wonderful clip of the Leicester players panting their way through a session with Wallace barking "Hands off that bloody sand!" every two seconds. Pre-season training should have been called Wallace and Vomit: players were frequently sick as their bodies surrendered. Some will comfortably dismiss Wallace as an antiquated barbarian, yet it is difficult to reconcile that with the fact most of his players adored him. Ted McMinn, who Wallace took to Sevilla when he managed them in the 1980s, described him as "everything to me, a dad really". Wallace could inspire most players to run to the ends of the earth – or, worse still, up Murder Hill. "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Jock Wallace," said Manolo Jiménez, who played under Wallace at Sevilla and later managed them. "He was a great, great manager who instilled in me my belief and fighting spirit." He also instilled a winning mentality. At Rangers, Wallace ended Celtic's run of nine consecutive titles, and then won two trebles in three seasons. In a TV interview before the 1984 League Cup final against Celtic, Wallace announced: "I fancy us very strongly. We've got the battle fever on today." They won 3-2 and the phrase stuck, a mantra for Rangers fans. Wallace's focus on fitness made him something of a visionary, even if his methodology was emphatically of its time. He was the Arsène Wenger of his day, only armed with sand rather than pasta. John Greig, perhaps Rangers' greatest ever player, says Wallace's regime was the reason he was able to play until he was 35. Others felt the value of the training was as much psychological as physical. Wallace may have made some of his players vomit, but then there could be no battle fever without sickness. He also knew that hardship begot hardness. Wallace was obsessed with character-building, having built a deceptively complex character of his own. In many respects, Wallace was a gentle beast. On the day Rangers won their first title for 11 years, he sent on a palpably unfit Greig for the last two minutes so that he could drink in the moment and collect the trophy. Wallace also forged a friendship with Johan Cruyff and nearly persuaded him to join Leicester in 1981. "They don't come with giant character and personality like 'Big Man' Jock Wallace any more," wrote Sir Alex Ferguson – and that was in 1994, before the game really started to change. Wallace would have no chance with the whirligig of snidery that is modern football, particularly with player power rampant. But he is a perfect reminder of an age when football well and truly had the battle fever on. https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2011/aug/23/jock-wallace-hard-football-manager

Ignore them and beat them. That is all.

This is brilliant news. If he stays and the rest of the key players are staying, it means we only need a couple of additions in the summer to be strong for next season. The future's bright ...

Tip top news

As long as these lads do not incite violence or any other acts which could tarnish the club's brand, then why pre-judge them? They already know Plod are watching them. What's wrong with a wee bit of swagger and enthusiasm?

Couple of hardy tradesmen in that team, Willie Rae and Johnny Little plus the rollicking Sammy Baird. The legendary Geordie Young , the young Caldow on his way to world-class and the best right half I ever saw, Ian McColl. A solid ‘keeper, two dazzling wingers and Billy Simpson and Maxie to rattle them in. A very god side.

I'm surprised that the main focus of this is on the wording, rather than the picture of someone being kicked. The whole thing is wrong, but what is bizarre is that we're now more sensitive about wording than something that suggests a physical threat.

5 goals scored more this time round over the 7 games. However until the last 3 games we'd actually scored 2 less. The gap opened up due to the away games at Hamilton and St Johnstone who to be honest are very poor sides. I've not included cup games because they just distort the real picture.

Saw it via FB a few days ago & couldn't believe the wording.... The actual meaning of the word is irrelevant - It's bee deemed as offensive/bigoted. By intentionally using it in the advert, all it does is show the UB's in a bad like. It doesn't help any cause, plan or goal. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!!!!

Excellent article. Amidst the optimism I have two main concerns for the game. First is, as I've said before, they have a huge advantage in that a draw is a win for them. Sure it doesn't fit their narrative of being on a different planet to us but at the end of the day a draw virtually wins them the league lets face it. Tactically that is huge because it means they don't need to take risks but we do, allowing them to play on the counter. This can work out to our advantage if we're clinical with our finishing because we're likely to have more of the ball. Second concern is the number of players now who aren't really in best shape for the game anymore. Alves, John and Murphy have all now had less than ideal preparation. The rest of the squad should be in ideal shape having played so many games in a row, but those 3 are a bit of a concern because we need to be at our best. It will be interesting to see if Celtic go with Gamboa at RB or a 3-5-2.

Superb read! I'm ready! (Apologies in advance: this gif will be rolled out a lot over the next few days...)

Ross County won the league and went up automatically. Dundee were second and went up because of us. Dundee didn't vote.

Fret not, I'm used to doubters thinking I'm nuts. Happened re Whyte, re D&P and re Green but que sera sera.

The words of a man feeling the pressure

The Cup Final of 1973 and "Jaws" six inch screamer also because it was the only game my wife to be ever attended. I think the size of crowd and noise put her off so I can honestly say that she is the only person I know with a 100% win attendance.

That McGinn is one of the ugliest people I have ever seen. How small are his eyes? Hearts were poor.

It's two miles on public streets and roads. Think of it if the yahoos and their 'green brigade' planned such a march after printing an inflammatory flyer. Knowing the type of songs and chants the green yahoos would be grunting you don't see how this can be a flashpoint we don't need You would be more than content to see the green yahoos conduct such a march in your area in sight and sound of your family?

Looks like we’re now working with agents rather than being in conflict with them. Is that the DoF effect?

Good start to the weekend. Hopefully he lifts his first senior cup pretty soon.

They want to appear separate from the club so fine. They want to be a bit Gallas and and are up for the first time in years. So long as nobody is injured so what? If there was a flyer re “H@ns” you think there would be such an outcry??.....no me neither. It’s not my thing and their methods are questionable but that’s up to them.

Good for them standing their ground. The scot squad using intimidation tactics, surely not........

I love this one ...

Done it many times pre season, now the best I could do would be just rolling down it!

The PSNI also term the word H@un offensive and sectarian. The legislators and police in Scotland don’t see the need to highlight that though.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland states "the use of the word ‘fen,ian’ as a generic term to refer to Roman Catholics in the vast majority of circumstances will be offensive".

Yes "Big Jock" was a legend and always will be for the successes he landed us. Meanwhile Brenda showed he is beginning to crack with his whining about teams only raising their games against his mhanky mob,whereas we on here have been lamenting the fact that this is normal practice for teams playing us. Really hope that we do the business and look forward to the mhedia and scum meltdown.

Looking forward to Sunday and think great article from JMc and that team will pick itself if all relevant players fit. IMO we should pressure their midfield in their own half and have someone like Docherty constantly in the face of Brownto not allow him to play his simple game of 5-10 yard passing. Come on the Gers

I hope Murphy and John are fit to allow us to play that team although Halliday has done ok in his couple of games at left back. Murphy was brilliant his last 3/4 appearances and could really give their back line something to think about and pin Forrest back at wing back. Fingers crossed Morelos brings his shooting boots too. ??

Something like this was always going to happen when the h@n scum banner was sanctioned and the mock executions. There was no statement from the scot squad and NBM re sectarian then?? I know what’s going on and it’s easy to say they are stupid for doing it. However, we can’t say we are surprised? Maybe they just have the “baws” that we lost over the years? Until the word “H@n” is labelled criminal and until the playing field is levelled this kind of stuff will continue I suspect? I am 100% sure the political establishment and the scot squad already know this.

Appalling. I hope everyone who is offended makes a full recovery. Thoughts and prayers etc. Meanwhile, let's get into this shower of vermin!