WHEN HE wasn’t arming right-wing death squads and toppling democracies that the US didn’t fancy, Henry Kissinger loved his football.

The west’s most powerful, non-elected statesman promoted realpolitik to justify any geo-political aggravation the rest of us would have considered shady or downright malevolent. Realpolitik basically dictated that anything and everything goes so long as America’s interests were best served by them.

At the start of the Cuban missile crisis it was Kissinger who first realised there was a Russian presence in America’s small Latin neighbour when aerial spy photographs revealed the markings of football pitches. Kissinger immediately understood their significance: Cubans didn’t play football but the Russians were mad for it and were the reigning European champions.

On another occasion, he attended a match involving Grimsby Town in the mid-1970s as he sought to charm local politicians into allowing Icelandic trawlers to fish off England’s north-east coast. In exchange for allowing the US to install surveillance posts to monitor Soviet submarine manoeuvres, Kissinger had promised Iceland entry into British fishing grounds.

This was the man who watched the 1978 World Cup in Argentina in the company of the country’s brutal military dictators.

The old global puppet-master would surely have appreciated the advanced form of realpolitik that’s practised in Glasgow and west central Scotland in the week prior to any meeting between Celtic and their rivals across the city.

Those who can’t appreciate the nuances of this delicate, diplomatic dance prefer to focus on the negative aspects of Celtic’s rivalry with Rangers. They are ignorant of the true reality: that peace and goodwill exist in the vast majority of families, clubs and workplaces that straddle this divide.

Occasionally, this can be manifest in the edgy conversations that take place on taxi journeys or when you fall into cheery conversations with bartenders and random service providers.

“Are you a football man, then?”

“I am.” (Warily).

“Watching the game on Sunday?”

“Yes. Should be a decent match.” It's always best to start in neutral gear until you ascertain your conversation partner’s allegiances.

Sometimes they’ll just come right out and state: “I’m a Rangers man myself.” It’s good when this happens because then you can switch to full diplomatic mode and talk authoritatively about Rangers players and how good “the boy Kamara is”.

If he seems a reasonable and good-natured chiel you might even throw in a few esoteric facts to prove that you’re a keen and objective student of the fixture and not driven by any unseemly passions. Thus you might talk about how, in a gentler time, Celtic and Rangers players mixed freely in each other’s company after these matches. Admittedly, such encounters were always relaid to you third or fourth-hand and almost all of them included Jim Baxter.

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You might, were you to be in a particularly beneficent mood, venture some praise of Rangers’ recent European performances while hinting (in a passive-aggressive way) that Red Star Belgrade were entitled to feel more than a tad unlucky. At this you mention the ubiquitous catch-all of the seasoned Glasgow football diplomat: “It’s good for the co-efficient” and that, after all, “you make your own luck” on these occasions.

The ”you make your own luck” concept has no known basis in science or statistical theory, but it governs the analysis of football commentators everywhere when trying to explain victories achieved with the assistance of two dodgy penalties and a harsh red card. Nor are you even remotely familiar with the complicated workings of the European co-efficient points system but you know that this season Celtic might somehow reap the benefit from Rangers’ good fortune in Europe.

An experienced Rangers taxi-driver in these situations will perhaps overcome his instinct to offer a gnarly riposte to your slightly jaundiced observations. He knows that a decent tip is at stake and so he’ll settle for a cheery “Let’s hope it’s a good advert for Scottish football and that we all get home safely.”

You will then agree wholeheartedly, as though you are accustomed to taking these games in your stride win, lose or draw. You’ll even perhaps advance a larger-than-usual gratuity to the fellow - 1) because you’ve felt good about yourself for being able to enjoy a grown-up conversation about the game; 2) because you feel in these situations that you must be an ambassador for your own side.

My own genuine feelings as we approach Sunday’s game are that Celtic are well-placed to win it.

In the uncertainty of their chaotic start to this season - losing three of their first six league fixtures - it’s forgotten how well they played in that early 1-0 defeat at Ibrox. This was a Celtic team at the start of a major overhaul of tactics and personnel. Yet, with no away fans in the stadium, the game could have gone either way and, but for Odsonne Edouard’s astonishing miss from two yards, could have resulted in a Celtic win. It was also the game where we began to realise that Tony Ralston was being transformed into a formidable defensive warrior.

Celtic have improved immeasurably since then, while Rangers have been unconvincing. It’s also a while since the Hoops have gone into a game at Ibrox with a centre forward. Giorgos Giakoumakis is playing with confidence and feels he can score in any game.

In Daizen Maeda, Celtic have a player who looks as though he was made for these games. The winger’s fitness levels and work-rate are astonishing and there can’t be any defender in Scottish football who will relish playing against him.

Most importantly, Celtic go into this game with a settled and in-form central-defensive pairing for the first time since Kristoffer Ajer and Christopher Jullien formed a formidable unit about three seasons ago.

I also believe that James Forrest still has a few more critical interventions left in him before this season is out.

But, of course, let’s all hope that it’s a good advert for the Scottish game and that everyone gets home safely.