This season has been a familiar story in Scottish football. Celtic are on the verge of another treble, with the Scottish Cup final against Aberdeen their last hurdle in that quest. On the other hand, the Rangers are set to finish without a trophy once again and had to sack a manager in the middle of the campaign for the third-straight year, with Philippe Clement being shown the exit door this time around.
Despite this, there is a lot of positivity around Ibrox at this point in time. That is because the club are believed to be on the verge of a takeover by a US consortium involving the 49ers Enterprises and Andrew Cavenagh.
That is expected to bring in added investment to the club. The Rangers fans are hoping that that helps them catch up with Celtic, something that they have not been able to do for a long time.
It might not be as simple as going out and making signings though. As reported by the Daily Record, Peter Lovenkrands said:
"Can they challenge Celtic? Again, it all depends on the change of ownership and the funding.
"Because even if they (49ers Enterprises) take over, there are also fair play rules for money spent.
“You can't just go and buy anybody you want now.
“You have to play under the rules, so that's not going to be easy.
“There will also be players who don't want to leave. They probably have to - but won’t want to.
“So there are a lot of obstacles in the way.
“I think it'll be tough to go and deal with Celtic at the moment.
“They seem to be a lot more settled in what they're doing compared to Rangers.
“So I think it'll be very tough.
“I still think Celtic will be favourites next year if nothing changes."
49ers sent Celtic reality check before Rangers takeover
Let's see how things play out over the coming weeks and months. It is worth pointing out that the takeover has not gone through yet but some estimate that it should become official by the end of this month.
Even if the takeover does end up taking place, Celtic should not be too worried about the situation. At the end of the day, they are in a settled position and have been winning for years.
In fact, this might turn out to be a positive thing for the club and push them to improve further, in order to maintain the gap with the Rangers. For now, the Hoops' focus has to be on the present and that involves winning the Scottish Cup final and doing another treble.