BBC pundit Chris Sutton has claimed that the way the season ended last year for Rangers provided them with a little bit of extra motivation for their successful title charge.
The 2019/20 season ended prematurely with Rangers forced to settle for 2nd place as their Old Firm rivals were handed the league. It finished with Rangers 13 points behind Neil Lennon’s men, with a game in hand and with nine games left to play, so whilst it would have been a difficult task to overtake them, it certainly wasn’t impossible.
And speaking on the Monday Night Club (30:41), former Celtic man Sutton, felt that the circumstances in which their campaign ended gave Rangers that extra mental boost that they needed to go on and win the league in the dominant fashion that they did:
“Last season he spoke about the way that the season ended early and Celtic were awarded the title, and they felt hard done by and used that as a strength. Though I don’t necessarily buy it… but the fact that Steven somehow managed to instill belief because of that, told you that Rangers were always going to grow and push Celtic.
“The way, that Celtic have imploded has been incredible, but having said all that you have to take your hat off.”
Will Rangers win the league next season?
Yes
No
TIF Thoughts on Chris Sutton’s comments about Rangers’ title win
Sutton is right on both fronts here when it comes to Rangers and their performance this season, whilst some of it might come down to the disaster of a campaign that Celtic went through, the sheer dominance that Rangers put on, only conceding 13 goals and getting 102 points whilst going unbeaten can only really come from within.
The question now becomes how do they stay motivated for next season now that they have that monkey off their backs. What will Gerrard use as the main driving force to ensure that they can take another step forward with this dominance, and perhaps even turn it into something that they can use in fixtures abroad now that they’re back in the Champions League for the first time since 2011.
In other news: “Gerrard will have somebody up his sleeve” – Exclusive: Graham Roberts drops huge Rangers claim