Kris Boyd believes that Steven Gerrard should follow the Martin O’Neill route to success.
In 2000 after the failed John Barnes experiment the Celtic board turned to the Irishman who had taken Leicester into the EPL and won the League Cup while at Filbert Street.
Fortunately for O’Neill he inherited a squad that include Henrik Larsson, Paul Lambert, Lubo Moravcik, Johan Mjallby and Stan Petrov.
Rookie Gerrard will be taking on a squad whose star players are James Tavernier, Josh Windass and Andy Halliday.
Within six months at Celtic O’Neill was able to bring in Chris Sutton, Alan Thompson and Neil Lennon from the EPL, equivalent signings in 2018 would cost around £50m and require a similar sum in signing on fees and wages.
Despite those facts Boyd has a cunning plan to stop Celtic from winning eight-in-a-row.
“How do Rangers overhaul Celtic’s dominance?” he asked Sun readers.
“For me, the blueprint is there from the way Martin O’Neill turned things around at Celtic when he made his team strong and physical.
“The first thing he did when he arrived was sign big, powerful players.
“He knew he couldn’t take Rangers on by playing football so he targeted real men to win games of football. That’s what Rangers need to do now.
“Martin Skrtel has already been linked and that’s no surprise — and I would expect others like that to be signed too.
“That’s the type Rangers need, the get-in-your-face type of defender who simply stops forwards playing.
“If Gerrard comes in and tries to take Celtic on by playing football then I’m sorry but there is only going to be one winner.
“Rangers need to mix it up by bringing athletes to the club, along with a couple of diamonds, then it could work.”
It is difficult to imagine Skrtel having a bigger impact than Bruno Alves or Pip Senderos.
