WHERE did it all go wrong for Celtic? Brendan Rodgers and his all-conquering side were for so long the cock of the walk in Scotland, proudly displaying their trophies and their dominance. But now the peacocks, to paraphrase a famously flamboyant former Motherwell chairman, are in danger of quickly becoming the feather dusters.

It is important though to find a semblance of sanity in the caterwauling that has greeted Celtic’s exit from the Champions League, which came quickly on the heels of a demoralising domestic defeat at Tynecastle. You probably wouldn’t know it if you hadn’t watched Celtic’s last two matches given the fallout since, but they weren’t actually that bad in either of them.

In fact, a case could be made to say that they could and perhaps should have won both. How different the mood music would be around not only Celtic, but Scottish football as a whole had they managed to dig those results out.

As it is though, they fell short primarily due to defensive deficiencies, which there is no doubt will have to be addressed.

That won’t require major surgery, but a centre-back and a right-back – who should have arrived long before now - have to be the top priorities in the remainder of this transfer window for the champions.

Their off-field troubles such as the public fallout between Rodgers and the board and the Dedryck Boyata fiasco are hardly helping matters either, but what has drawn Celtic’s woes into even starker contrast is the progress taking place of the city.

Steven Gerrard has quietly been going about the business of turning the soft-centred Rangers side he inherited into one with a cast-iron spine, an approach that has served them so well in their Europa League qualifying campaign so far.

So, while it is incredibly early days in the season, it isn’t hard to separate the Rangers and the Celtic fans as you stroll around Glasgow City Centre. Suddenly, the side who have had a spring in their step for as long as they care to remember have their shoulders slumped, and vice-versa.

Rangers deserve huge credit for their European run to date. Seeing off a team like Maribor, who were in the Champions League last season and drew with Spanish cracks Sevilla, is a remarkable accomplishment, particularly coming from the starting point where Gerrard picked up the reins.

Fans would do well though to take heed of a note of caution. As much as they might like to forget it, we all remember the ‘Going for 55’ display ahead of Mark Warburton’s first match in the Premiership, a 1-1 draw with Hamilton that set the tone for that campaign, with the bold ‘Warbs’ being sent packing with his magic hat between his legs by the February.

Then, we had Pedro Caixinha, who said he was going to bring European glory back to Ibrox, shortly before being pictured haranguing fans from a bush in Luxembourg after being papped out of the Europa League by Progres Niederkorn.

Nobody is arguing that the Caixinha era – which sometimes still feels like an LSD-induced trance – is comparable to the work that Gerrard has done so far with this Rangers team, but supporters of the Ibrox club may do well to at least keep one toe on the ground, if not an entire foot.

There is nothing wrong with getting a bit excited about your team. Heaven knows, Rangers fans will feel they deserve to after what they have witnessed for the past two seasons.

All I am saying is that perhaps Rangers are not yet quite as good as they are currently being made out to be, and Celtic are not as bad as they are currently being made out to be. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle, with Celtic slightly regressing and Rangers improving markedly, which does mean that the gap between the sides may not be as cavernous as it appeared just a short time ago.

It would be an opportune moment for a genuine title race between the sides to develop, and who is to say that the likes of Aberdeen, Hibs and Hearts - who currently top the league, don’t forget - can’t crash the party too? With television deals being negotiated, another procession isn’t in Scottish football’s wider interests.

Maybe some feathers will be ruffled after all.