Charlie Mulgrew: Celtic will have ‘one eye’ on Rangers under new boss Martin

Former Celtic player Charlie Mulgrew believes the champions “will have one eye on Rangers” given the change in management at Ibrox.

The completion of an American-led takeover resulted in the arrival of sporting director Kevin Thelwell and head coach Russell Martin, and Rangers fans are eagerly awaiting new players following promise of investment in the squad.

Martin is the latest man to be tasked with ending Celtic’s domestic dominance, which has seen them win 13 of the last 14 titles and come within a Scottish Cup shoot-out against Aberdeen of winning a sixth treble in nine seasons.

Speaking after Celtic were handed a William Hill Premiership opener at home to St Mirren, Mulgrew said: “I’m sure Brendan Rodgers will be looking at signings and looking first and foremost to get the players in the building to stay and push on next year.

“I think that cup final will leave a bit of a taste in their mouth and they’ll be thinking when they get back at it.

“It’s a disappointing end to the season, although it was a great season when you look back.

“It’s hard to criticise when you look at how good the Champions League campaign was, the league campaign.

“Trebles have become such a regular thing, thanks to Brendan Rodgers and the way Celtic have been recently.

“But also, there will be one eye on Rangers’ new manager and what he’s going to bring.

“They’ll know he’s a good manager and good ideas in the game and he’ll be looking to get Rangers back on track.

“You try and focus on yourself but there’s no doubt about it. One eye is on… especially the fact they’ve got a new manager, so you don’t know what he’s going to bring.

“You don’t know, although they’ll have an idea of his last teams and what they’ve done, but you don’t know what kind of reaction he’ll get from the players.

“You imagine the reaction because he’s new at the start and he’s obviously a good pedigree, so that’ll be interesting.”

Charlie Mulgrew appeared courtesy of William Hill and the Warm-Up, SPFL title sponsor.