Ambition, Messiahs and £40 million: Can Celtic benefit from Steven Gerrard's Rangers exit?

A tale of two football clubs in one city.

This year's Scottish Premiership title fight will come down to one thing and one thing only - Ambition.

Rangers boss Steven Gerrard's defection to English Premier League outfit Aston Villa might just have blown the race for the flag even more wide open.

Could Gerrard's departure pave the way for Ange Postecoglou to win the league in his debut season?

Can the news down Govan way really be a good thing for Celtic?

Has Gerrard's sudden exit thrown Celtic a title lifeline and a possible passage to £40 million?

After all back in the summer, Rangers were a shoo-in for the title - right?

READ MORE: The tightening Celtic and Rangers gap and why the first evolution of Angeball has already begun

The Light Blues under Gerrard had ended Celtic's quest for the ten in spectacular style. History will be kind to the Scouser regarding his managerial tenure in Scotland.

He inherited a total shambles and turned them into a well-drilled professional outfit.

Gerrard's legacy at Ibrox will be the professionalism he instilled in the club as well as winning the title that Celtic and their fans coveted the most while he put Rangers firmly back on the European map. He returns to England with his reputation very much intact. It is a case of Job done for Gerrard.

Celtic bizarrely failed to appoint a new manager until 107 days after Neil Lennon had left the building. The hierarchy was led on a wild goose chase by Eddie Howe who then turned them down after months of courting. Howe has since picked up the managerial cudgels at Saudi cash-rich side Newcastle.

The men from Glasgow's East End finally turned their attentions to Postecoglou in June.

The 56-year-old had enjoyed success in Australia's A-League and the J-League in Japan.

It was no surprise then that the Aussie uprooted his family and flew halfway across the world to answer the Celtic board's call. The faithful were then treated to terms like 'transition', 'a work in progress' and 'bedding in periods'.

Celtic don't do transitions. Celtic are rarely a work in progress. Celtic managers don't normally get 'bedding in periods'.

Postecoglou inherited a mess. The team was in crisis. Confidence was at low ebb.

That was all too evident when Celtic crashed out of the Champions League to FC Midtjylland at the first hurdle.

This was beginning to look like a job and half for Ange and some experts who really ought to know better predicted that Celtic could finish as low as fifth in the table after an inauspicious start to the league campaign.

That's why Gerrard quitting for the Midlands is a big deal for Celtic and their supporters even if the manager insists he doesn't care a jot about what his neighbours across the south side of the city are up to.

READ MORE: Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou reacts as Steven Gerrard looks set to swap Rangers for Aston Villa

Ange is busy building his new 'beautiful house' at Celtic.

As he said: "I have been laser-focused on here and I will continue to be and it hasn't been too difficult.

"People watch TV these days and they binge a series in one night because they don't want to wait another week for the next episode as we did in the old days.

"People wanted to binge on this season as well. One result and it was over or one result and it was done.

"I'm making everybody fully aware that we can't get distracted by anyone or anything as we are trying to build something here and when you try to build something and be successful you can't afford to be looking to what other people are doing.

"We have got to build our house and make it nice and beautiful and see how it stacks up against the rest of the neighbourhood."

That may well be so but don't be fooled by the memes, the laughter and typical mick taking going on from Celtic fans to those who support the team on the other side of the city.

There is a backhanded compliment somewhere in all of the jokes that we have witnessed on social media the past couple of days.

The reason that there is such elation from the Celtic supporters is that the Scottish Premiership League title chase is wide open. Many Celtic fans would argue that it already was and quite rightly so.

However, when a management team that won a league title last year by a landslide 25 points and have already beaten Celtic once this season as well as holding a four-point lead over their rivals at the top of the table leaves for pastures new then that surely hands Ange's men some sort of an advantage - albeit temporarily.

Celtic fans can deny it all they want but they are glad to see the back of Gerrard, Gary McAllister and Michael Beale.

You know the 'beautiful house' idea that Ange is talking about creating and building at Celtic? In the five short months he has been there he has more than steadied the ship. Over the last eight matches have shown title-winning form and started to click. They have closed the gap on Rangers to four points at the summit and extended their European adventure beyond Christmas.

READ MORE: How Celtic have out-punched Leicester City and Real Sociedad amid 'outside chance' of Euro trophy

Celtic are currently on an eight-match unbeaten run both domestically and in Europe. In losing their manager and backroom team to Aston Villa it is Rangers who have now started to creak.

Gerrard has chosen his moment to board the express train bound for the EPL and he may have leapt off the platform at the optimum time.

It is Rangers and their supporters who are experiencing their very own 'Brendan Rodgers' moment - just as Celtic did when the Northern Irishman sensationally quit before the end of the 2019 season to rejoin the EPL and manage Leicester - with Gerrard.

Rangers, in the words of Echo & The Bunnymen, are now looking to: "Bring on the new Messiah, wherever he may roam."

Ironically this is the biggest question that has been asked of Rangers in the last 18 months and it has come off the field.

If Celtic are to cash in on Gerrard's decision to exit Govan then Ange's men will also need to start asking their own serious questions of Rangers on the field where it matters. After all, this is a team that Celtic have not defeated on league duty since 2019.They still represent a formidable opponent.

Which places it back rather nicely into the hands of the Celtic board once again.

Do they stick or twist with Ange in the January transfer window knowing full well what is at stake?

If you know your history then traditionally January is not a month where Celtic are keen to conclude a lot of business. Ange has different ideas on that front though.

When asked about possible signings in January, Ange said this: "I still want to bolster the depth and the quality of our squad.

"Bringing new players in is a constant for me and I work pretty methodically and I don't like to rush into things whether that be the current state of affairs or future affairs and that is why the summer transfer window was far too chaotic for me but I understand that was the situation I was put into and I don't want that to happen again in January or the future. That won't happen if we start working methodically and that will allow us to make business decisions without feeling the pressure of time or any other anxieties. When that happens you are more likely to get something wrong or do something in haste."

Talk about a warning shot over the bow to the Celtic board.

That's why January is all of a sudden shaping up to become a huge month.

As Ange has alluded to, what happens over at Rangers won't change his master plan to win the Scottish Premiership title.

Do the Celtic board sport the same drive and ambition to back their man in the transfer window when the time comes?

The Aussie has spoken with supreme confidence that his January transfer window plans are underway already. Rangers' goalposts may have changed, Ange and Celtic's shouldn't.

The Celtic board are now in a catch-22 situation.

READ MORE: Celtic’s Doomsday Champions League scenario that could see automatic place disappear

Backing Ange properly could see Celtic seriously kick on in the second half of the season and with a £40m bounty at stake and a badly damaged rival, for the time being at least, it is over to the board to capitalise fully on that situation.

If Ange can lead Celtic to the promised land of the Champions League million then the club hierarchy, as well as the faithful, will believe that the Aussie really is some sort of Messiah.

Yours truly was very vociferous and critical of the Celtic hierarchy last season and I uttered these words at their failure to deliver the coveted ten-in-a-row title on another social media platform.

"Where there was harmony, you brought discord.

"Where there was truth, you brought error.

"Where there was faith, you brought doubt.

"Where there was hope, you brought despair."

The time has now come to flip those words on their head in praise of the man at the Celtic managerial helm.

Who knows maybe the Celtic board will take heed of them this time.

"Where there was discord; Ange has brought harmony.

"Where there was doubt; Ange has brought faith.

"Where there was despair, Ange has brought hope.

"Where there was darkness, Ange has brought light.

"Where there was sadness, Ange has brought joy."

There is also a school of thought and an argument that this season more than any other in Scottish football history is far more important than ten-in-a-row because of the financial rewards.

It will be the last time for a long while that a Scottish club will receive automatic access to a Champions League fortune.

This really is a winner-takes-all season.

One of the two Glasgow clubs is best equipped to speculate to accumulate in January.

It will all come down to good old fashioned footballing ambition in two boardrooms on both sides of the city.

The ball is very much in the Celtic hierarchy's court.

There are 40 million reasons to back Ange in January.

The Celtic board won’t regret it come what May.