STEPHEN McGOWAN: This is a cup final that Rangers boss Clement simply HAS to win … or he faces an agonising summer

While Eric Cantona brooded about trawlers and sardines, Ryan Giggs always seemed a simpler soul. More cod and chips than cod philosophy.

However, in Amazon Prime’s new documentary series about Manchester United’s historic Treble-winning season of 1998/99, Giggsy gushes about the most powerful driver known to professional athletes. The fear of failure.

“Disappointment is a much stronger emotion than winning things,” thinks the Old Trafford wizard. ‘It takes longer.’

No one mentions this now. But 12 months before Barcelona’s Miracle in the Champions League final, Fergie’s United were in second place. Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal had beaten their bitter rivals to a league and FA Cup double and that pushed them around the corner.

“It will last all summer,” Giggs claims. ‘You think about it every day. Every day.’

If Celtic add the Scottish Cup to the league title at Hampden, Rangers are in for one of those summers. They will be consumed by what could have been. Tortured by the missed opportunities.

The importance of this match for Philippe Clement cannot be overstated. If you win the cup, the story changes in an instant.

Rangers would end a rollercoaster of a season with an acceptable haul of trophies. Considering the way they started the season, two out of three isn’t bad. The Belgian would end his three-match winless run against Celtic.

If fans start to wonder whether he really is the answer, it would give him some breathing room to bring in some new players this summer. The mood would be upbeat, optimistic and hopeful, and the Champions League qualifiers would feel a little more like an opportunity and a little less like a test.

Lose again to Celtic and confidence is gone. Clement would end the season with another defeat against the only team he had to beat. Even Michael Beale won his fourth derby and if this ends the same way as the others, Clement will head to Parkhead for the opening game of next season’s Old Firm competition under immense pressure.

One more defeat and he would be back in the same film as Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Beale. Fans firing SOS (Save Our Season) distress signals into the Govan skies before the end of September.

When Manchester United were second to Arsenal all those years ago, they started the following campaign with a 3-0 defeat to the Gunners in the Charity Shield. Players started fighting, bickering and doubting themselves. Alex Ferguson never did that.

When Sir Furious looked around the Old Trafford dressing room, he saw strong, no-nonsense, resilient characters such as Peter Schmeichel, the Neville brothers, Roy Keane, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Giggs and Andy Cole.

At the Christmas party, Keane gathered a broken team into a drunken huddle and ordered them to stop losing games. And when Keano spoke, they listened.

Look around the Rangers dressing room and there are no Roy Keanes. There are very few players that Clement can trust to give him an eight out of ten in a big must-win game, or to go out with a bang.

James Tavernier and Connor Goldson are the Devon Lochs of Scottish football. As soon as the finish line looms on the horizon, their legs seem to disappear.

A red card at Parkhead last week showed why John Lundstram cannot necessarily be trusted to keep the lead on the big occasion. Borna Barisic throws a nice cross but already has one eye on the exit.

Todd “TikTok” Cantwell spends his days reading social media instead of reading the room.

Cyriel Dessers has scored a very decent 22 goals, but if he plays one-on-one with Joe Hart in the final minute at Hampden today, he will either stick it into the top corner for goal of the season or fall over. his own feet. There is no middle ground.

There are three or four players Clement can trust to show up for the games that really matter.

Goalkeeper Jack Butland was robbed of a place in Gareth Southgate’s squad for the European Championship. Dujon Sterling plays four or five positions, and the manager wishes he could play them all at once. Mohamed Diomande looks like a player who will be worth a few euros one day. And unless new signing Jefte is the next Roberto Carlos, Ridvan Yilmaz should be the first-choice left-back next season. Assuming he gets fit again.

By Celtic standards this was a challenging campaign. But when the season really gets exciting, Brendan Rodgers has a hardcore group of players he can trust. James Forrest has 23 winners’ medals, captain Callum McGregor has 21, Kyogo Furuhashi loves a goal in a derby and Daizen Maeda is Tavernier’s worst nightmare. Matt O’Riley and Reo Hatate are sure to move to bigger leagues, while Cameron Carter-Vickers and Alistair Johnston are the proverbial Steady Eddies.

One of the oldest clichés in football states that when the Old Firm meet, form flies out the window. Lately that has not been the case.

Brendan Rodgers has seventeen derbies to his name and has only lost one. In those 17 games, Celtic scored 39 goals against their bitter rivals and conceded 12. In 1,530 minutes they were only 108 behind. They have scored first in 11 of the last 12 meetings. And they are the bookmakers’ favorites to triumph again today.

To give themselves a chance, the injury-ravaged Rangers team needs a fast, aggressive and controlled start. They must confuse the expectation with a feat that some of their own supporters doubt they have in them.

For some, this will be their last appearance in a light blue jersey before their contract expires. For others, it is their last chance to prove they deserve a future at Ibrox.

Speaking on Thursday, Clement claimed rumors of a major Rangers rebuild this summer had been exaggerated. Lose to Celtic today and he really won’t have a choice. He will have to root out a failing team to save his job.

Plastic makes no difference to the evil four

Falkirk, Hamilton, Queen of the South and Raith Rovers argue that a proposed ban on artificial pitches in the Premier League is ‘grossly unfair’.

Claiming the proposals will ‘demotivate and discourage’ teams with top ambitions, they want the richest clubs to help with the costs of the move. And nothing is more unfair than that.

When Fir Park was still a cow pasture, Motherwell spent £1.2 million refurbishing it.

Kilmarnock have agreed to install a turf at Rugby Park at their own expense.

Even Dundee will have to spend some money to make Dens Park playable. Or else.

Clubs with artificial pitches already spend their money on players rather than on ground staff and pitch maintenance. Why would they put a cent more in their pockets?

Each elite members club has a set of criteria before accepting members. And since the Scottish Premier League was founded in 1975-76, the four angry clubs have consistently fallen on the most important criteria of all.

In those 49 seasons, Hamilton has only spent twelve seasons at the highest level. Falkirk last played there fourteen years ago. The Beatles had just landed in America the last time Queen of the South mixed it up with the big boys. Raith last graced the summit in the year Tony Blair was elected by a landslide. And after losing the home leg of the play-off final against Ross County, they will be lucky to bounce back before Keir Starmer comes in at number 10.

It doesn’t seem to make any difference to these teams whether they play on plastic, grass or the dark side of the moon. They’re not going up anyway.

Why is SFA sending the wrong message?

You wouldn’t see Germany announcing its squad for Euro 2024 with a video starring a hen, Antti Niemi, Frankie Boyle, Grado, Eilidh Barbour, the View From the Terrace man and a cast of fake fan extras who normally found in a Virgin Atlantic advertisement.

There is always room in football for a laugh and a giggle. But the SFA are the last people who should be promoting the slogan ‘no Scotland, no party’.

Steve Clarke harbors genuine ambitions to reach the knockout stages of the European Championship. For once, a major tournament could be a little more than a two-week bender.

The Germans, like England and France, are serious football countries with ambitions to win the tournament.

Why are the SFA advertising men spreading the message that Scotland is a country of many merchant tourists who are just happy to be there?