Inside Track: Celtic about to join Rangers in the Scottish League title-count

The Scottish Premier League pendulum continues to swing from one side of Glasgow to the other. There were times when it seemed it had stuck, never to move again.

Going strictly on the highest number of titles won in succession, Celtic were first to achieve the feat. Their nine-in-a-row, covering most of the 1960s and part of the following decade, had the great Jock Stein running the green show; Jimmy Johnstone haring it up and down the wing, and Billy McNeill was the glue that held the defence together.

There were Cups in the mix as well, one of them, the biggest trophy European football had to offer. The Glasgow greats were the Lisbon Lions in 1967.

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When it seemed they couldn’t be knocked of their pedestal, Celtic’s neighbours and bitter rivals, Rangers, escaped from the shadows, sometimes relegating Celtic to second. However, it was a decade and a half before they showed the same consistency of their rivals.

It all changed when, on this day 37 years ago, Graeme Souness arrived at Ibrox as player-manager. The former Liverpool didn’t oversee all of Rangers’ record-equalling nine in succession which followed – he just started the run.

Souness faced a mammoth task when he came in. Not only were Rangers bit-players – Aberdeen and Dundee United had taken some crumbs from the table presided over by Celtic – Ibrox was attracting crowds of only 5,000 most days, a figure which increased just a little for an Old Firm tie.

Like another Scot, one Alex Feguson, Souness didn’t make the most auspicious of starts in his new surroundings. Taking with him the skilful but aggressive play he had displayed Anfield and later with Sampdoria, the former Scotland captain was sent off early in his first game.

But it got better for him after that. Rangers won the league in Souness’ first time of asking, bringing home the trophy for first time in eight seasons. Ibrox was back more raucous than before, and Celtic soon learnt Glasgow clashes weren’t going to be easily won.

Souness brought several players in from England, a policy which had been foreign to the Ibrox club. Gary Stevens, Terry Butcher, Mark Hateley were some of them.

But, perhaps, his, let’s say, most audacious piece of work was to get Mo Johnston to cross from one side of the city to the other. This was a signing that made the 9 o’clock News.

When Rangers’ nine-title run ended, Celtic got back on the horse, but weren’t as dominant as before. Spoils from what was now firmly established as a two-horse race went from one side to the other until the second decade of this century.

It was then that Celtic once again put the boot down. Their 2011 title was followed by eight more in succession, and going into the 20/21 season they had a double-figure record in sights. For four of those years, however, Rangers hadn’t been among the opposition.

Having had difficulty with the readies, forcing them into liquidation, Rangers were banished to the Scottish League’s basement, playing host to the likes to such luminaries as Elgin, Bonnyrigg Rose and Peterhead. When they eventually made it back to the Premiership, they quickly gathered muscle, enough of it to spike Celtic’s bid for the outright record.

Celtic are now back on top, winners for the last three seasons, and certain to make it four in-a-row. They’ve won 12 of the last thirteen leagues, and when they add to that very shortly, Brendan Rodgers’ team will bring title No 55 to Parkhead, evening up a score that had for years being in their great rivals’ favour.