Rangers’ history will be GONE if Celtic win historic ten-in-a-row, claims Hoops legend Paul Lambert
PAUL LAMBERT has claimed Rangers' history will be GONE if Celtic win ten-in-a-row.
Neil Lennon's side became the second Hoops team to win nine successive titles last season.
"If you don't win it, then OK people will be really, really disappointed, but say 'OK, it's nine-in-a-row again'.
"But if Rangers were to lose it now to ten-in-a-row, then the history of Rangers is GONE.
"That's the pressure we had.
"We had the protection of John Clark, Billy McNeill, Bertie Auld, Ronnie Simpson, Jim Craig, Tommy Gemmell, Bobby Murdoch, big Yogi Hughes, Stevie Chalmers, Jimmy Johnstone... we had incredible pressure to protect the great Jock Stein era.
"Did you want to be known for losing their history? Not really because the 67 Lisbon Lions are the greatest Celtic team ever.
"The current guys just now I think are in a really good position to go and win it because the momentum is there and the way the club is and the structure is.
"Peter Lawwell has done a fantastic job.
"Steven over at Ibrox, if he doesn't know pressure now, it will come now because that will be a furnace of a place if they don't win.
"That's the pressure you've got to live with being a Celtic and Rangers player."
Lambert continued: "If you don't stop the ten-in-a-row, you're going to be remembered, unfairly, as one of the guys who had been part of losing ten-in-a-row.
"We had a really good Celtic side. A lot of people underestimated us. We had a lot of international players who could play at the highest levels.
"To stop that was phenomenal and probably the hardest title I've had to win."
He added: "The Celtic pressure will be totally different to the Rangers pressure, it will be enjoyable.
"The Rangers pressure is going to be horrendous.
"For me it's not the Rangers guys' ability, it's in the brain.
"If you can handle 50,000 expecting you to go to Aberdeen or Parkhead on a January, mentally can they handle the pressure of it?
"Chasing a title is an incredibly tough thing when your rivals are a good bit away from you.
"If you can't handle that Rangers crowd that's baying for you to win every single game to stop your oldest rivals taking away your history...
"If you're a Celtic player this season, you go out there with your chest out and try to win games.
"The pressure Rangers will feel will be unbelievable.
"I guarantee, every time Celtic play on the Saturday and Rangers play on the Sunday, they'll be looking for the Celtic score and thinking 'Oh we MUST win'.
"And when you have a must, must, must for 38 games, that can play on your brain thinking, 'We HAVE to win here'.
"When it's a HAVE to win, the pressure doubles. Whereas Celtic can play, play, play no problem. The guys are used to winning.
"I think the crowd will be great for Celtic this year. The other side of the city there will be a helluva lot of pressure, without a shadow of a doubt."