McCoist: I want Celtic in a Cup Final

The Rangers manager believes Celtic’s downsizing is partly because Rangers have been missing from the top table of Scottish football

Ally McCoist is dreaming of an Old Firm cup final.

The Rangers manager says Scottish football is missing the tension-packed atmosphere that comes with a game against Celtic. And he believes the Hoops fans agree.

The next time the Glasgow giants could potentially meet is in the League Cup quarter-finals. The Light Blues were controversially seeded for the last 16 stage of the tournament, and will play Falkirk if they can get past Inverness Caley Thistle.

McCoist said: “Celtic are still, by some considerable way, the strongest team in the country. And if we were to get them in a cup tie, I’d actually love it to be a Final.

“I miss the Old Firm games. I’d give my eye teeth for one. I’d play one tomorrow if we’d a strong enough team and were back up in the top flight.

“There’s a large amount of Celtic supporters who have said the exact same thing to me. I meet them in the street, and they say: ‘I don’t care what anybody says. We’ve got to get you back up and get the competition back’.

“I’m in total agreement with that.”

McCoist believes Celtic’s downsizing a hot topic since their Champions League exit is partly because Rangers have been missing from the top table of Scottish football.

He went on: “I think it is, and I don’t take any satisfaction in that at all. I think generally throughout Scottish football we’re seeing a bit of reaction to the demise of our football club.

“I just think the financial side of it is now having implications on everybody else.

“Right now we would all surmise that Celtic will win the League comfortably. I don’t see that changing. I would be absolutely staggered if that wasn’t the case.

“So we’re already talking about one of the positions in the top flight that is an automatic. That can’t be good for the game.

“There’s no way it’s the same in the Championship. With the greatest respect, I don’t think it’s great for Scottish football that there’s only one team going to win the top flight.

“But it would be completely crass for me to sit and say it was a great thing for us that Celtic have gone out of the Champions League.

“Think about the co-efficient, and the finances of the other clubs.

“It’s not a good thing, and you won’t hear me or anyone else at this football club saying anything other than that.”