With his final Old Firm game looming into view, legendary Rangers manager Walter Smith admitted he was “delighted” to be leaving the Glasgow derby firepit.
It was 2011, coming at a time when retirement was on the horizon and when off-field matters were dominating the headlines. The latter emphasising his desire to call it a day.
It is unlikely Smith’s former captain Barry Ferguson will want Sunday to be his last taste of a fixture that means everything in Glasgow but counts for little on this occasion.
Celtic’s latest title success, their 13th in 14 seasons, has left a bitter taste in Ferguson’s mouth as the interim head coach prepares for what may be his final game against the champions, with the Ibrox club’s incoming paymasters expected to make sweeping changes.
As a former Rangers skipper, Ferguson knows the fixture inside out, having made his derby debut in the midfield boiler room alongside Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Jorg Albertz in 1998. He knows what wins over their neighbours can do when it comes to longevity in the post.
But, despite ending an almost five-year wait for a victory at Celtic Park the last time they locked horns, Ferguson’s short stint in the hotseat looks to be coming to an end with inauspicious results elsewhere and an inability to win at home.
Putting it up to Celtic has not been Rangers’ problem in recent months.
They have won the past two derbies and were a penalty shootout away from winning the League Cup against Brendan Rodgers’ side in December.
They have scored three goals in three successive games against their old rivals for the first time since 2002 and are chasing a third straight win over them in the same season for the first time since 1996-97.
And yet it feels like Rangers are as far behind Celtic as they’ve ever been.
Goals have rained in on them and points have been shed against the other Premiership sides with staggering regularity.
Rangers have only scored once in their previous six games at Ibrox and equally staggering is the fact they have conceded at least twice in 11 of their past 13 overall.
