Steven Gerrard is desperate for Rangers to win at Parkhead today.
But the Ibrox boss admits the idea that a victory over Celtic means the good times are back is half-baked.
Gerrard wants to close the gap on his team’s greatest rivals but argues that’s incredibly difficult when he’s working with half the budget given to Neil Lennon.
John Harston put forward a theory that Rangers got carried away after beating Celtic in December, and that’s why they’ve been unable to sustain a title challenge.
Gerrard’s analysis is very different. He maintains it comes down to cold, hard cash.
He said: “Celtic have won the last seven trophies. Celtic have good players. Celtic’s budget is double, or more, my budget.
“The last thing I’m going to do is get carried away and think I’m better than Celtic because we took three points off them.
“That would be stupid, and if I did think that or gave anyone any evidence of that, then I’d be leaving myself wide open to criticism.
“We’ve got tons and tons and tons of work to do to get to where we want to get to.
“Forget competing with anyone else. We’ve got tons of work.
“We need to be better, personnel-wise, in certain areas. We need more and better options.
“I know exactly where we are and where we need to get to.
“No one I know close to me, players or staff, is getting carried away and thinking we are anything other than a team in progress that needs a lot of hard work.”
But there’s more to it than just graft.
Dave King and the Rangers Board have to find a way of bridging the financial gap.
This is where Steven Gerrard looks at the art of building a successful football team and compares it to baking a cake.
He went on: “We are going to need support, financial support, that’s the reality.
“We’ve built a decent base since we came in here in terms of the changes and what we’ve tried to do.
“We are doing everything we can to improve things at the training ground, at Ibrox and the team. Tactically, we believe we have moved on leaps and bounds.
“But the reality is when you’ve built your cake, you need a lovely icing on it and a bit of decoration on it that will hopefully make a difference.
“I’m still as confident as I was when I came in that we can achieve that – but I am going to need some help and support.”
It’s been said for a while that Rangers aren’t coming up with enough goals from midfield.
They’re overly reliant on Alfredo Morelos to hit the net and lack creativity behind him.
Gerrard readily agrees with that, but argues it is not a point that will be proved against Celtic today.
He said: “The question all the time is closing the gap to Celtic.
“But the reality is we’ve played Celtic twice, beaten them once and lost to them once.
“We are 10 points off Celtic because we haven’t had the right answers against Hibs three times, Aberdeen a couple of times,
St Johnstone at home, Dundee away.
“In the final third, we haven’t got that sprinkle of icing or that magic to go and open the door when it has been 1-1, or when it’s 1-0 to make it 2-0 and kill a game off.
“We know around Alfredo, we need more volume in terms of goals, whether it’s from an eight, a seven, an 11.
“Somewhere along the line, you need to get the icing or the bits to decorate the cake.
“You know and I know that costs money.
“I am not expecting us to go and buy Paul Pogba or Ramsey or De Bruyne.
“We can go into a market where we can improve and get more and better options around Alfredo – assuming he stays – to be better against your Hibernians, St Johnstones and Dundees.
“Hopefully, that’s the next step.”
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