There are spare dates in there but there is zero chance that even the Celtic board will take up the chance of extra revenue from hosting their city rivals who could have five home matches in August.
If the work isn’t completed on time the club would have to decide to play in front of a reduced capacity or to take home matches to Hampden or Murrayfield. Glasgow’s biggest stadium won’t be made available.
After getting a turn out of the squad left behind by Micky Beale to deliver a trophy and a few months hope of a treble Clement will be expecting the funds to put his own stamp on the club. That is looking unlikely a reality creates austerity.
Similarly Todd Cantwell was available for £1m from Norwich in January 2023, no English club wanted to know but Micky Beale looked him in the eyes and decided to build his Revolution around the celebrity C-lister.
Everything in the garden seems rosy for Phil Clement’s side with this season’s duds being sold off for big money as the Belgian Beale scouts cut price gems that are about to become the next best thing with the help of Calvin Bassey type hype from the fading Glasgow publisher.
Rather than file an official complaint or take any meaningful action Celtic do what they do best, get a source to brief their legacy media partners about their anger and outrage while doing SFA to damage their cherished O** F*** brand.
His keyboard spat out over 1,100 words saying virtually nothing, offering no analysis and as expected absolutely nothing about the poison that was pouring out the four stands at Ibrox from Ally McCoist’s 48,000 fellow fans.
I look at some of the players inside Clement’s dressing room and I see players who I’d have been more than happy to stand beside in the trenches at a moment like that.
Discussions have been on-going between the clubs but now, 10 days before the match takes place Celtic have decided not to put the safety of their fans at risk at Ibrox.
Unlike the corner given to away fans at Celtic Park the section for visiting fans at Ibrox has home supporters on all sides and also above within missile throwing range from the upper sections of the Broomloan Road and Govan Stands.