RANGERS chairman Dave King believes Celtic’s chase for an unprecedented 10th successive league title is flawed as those won during the Ibrox club's absence from the top division shouldn’t count towards it.
Celtic’s recent championship win was their sixth in a row taking them to within four of what would be a landmark achievement. Celtic won nine titles back-to-back from 1966 to 1974, a feat that was then equalled by Rangers between 1989 and 1997.
Celtic supporters have taken to regularly singing about the prospect of winning 10-in-a-row, something even manager Brendan Rodgers referenced when he signed his new contract in April.
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King, though, is of the opinion that the pursuit of 10-in-a-row is solely a duel between the two clubs, meaning the four “irrelevant” titles won by Celtic between 2013 and 2016 – when Rangers were in the lower leagues after going into liquidation – should not be included in their current tally.
“I was asked in the Q&A session in Las Vegas recently [at a Rangers fans convention] if I thought Celtic could get 10 in a row,” King revealed. “My response is that Celtic have got two in a row at this point in time. So they need to win another eight to get to 10. Do I think there’s any chance of them getting another eight? I don’t think there’s any chance of them doing that before us winning another league title.
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“Celtic have got six league titles but the concept of nine-in-a-row is a competition between Rangers and Celtic. So if Rangers went to the English Premier League and Celtic stayed behind in Scotland and won 20 league titles, there would be no point them saying to Rangers fans 'we’ve won 20 in a row'. It’s irrelevant if Rangers are not there. So it’s a challenge among ourselves.
“The fact that Rangers were removed from that league for four years suspended the nine-in-a-row pursuit. They’ve got the titles but they haven’t got nine-in-a-row in competition with Rangers. That only recommenced last season. So as far as Rangers are concerned, Celtic haven’t got six in a row. They’ve got two. And they’ll never get to 10. They won’t even get close.”
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