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<\/p>\nThe Ibrox legend is getting giddy as he appreciates thousands of people\u2019s happiness depends on what 11 men do on the park<\/p>\n
06:00, 25 Feb 2026Updated 10:13, 25 Feb 2026<\/p>\n
Celtic v Rangers – Season in numbers 2025\/26<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Tuesday morning, just after 11am.<\/p>\n
Now, in normal weeks, when the next game is still five days away, it all still feels run of the mill.<\/p>\n
As a player, you go into training and go through the usual preparations. There\u2019s plenty of time to be ready for the weekend when it comes around.<\/p>\n
But not this week. And not even all these years on, long after the boots have been hung up.<\/p>\n
Honestly, I\u2019m sitting here writing this column for Record Sport with a knot tightening in the pit of my stomach. I can feel the adrenaline starting to build inside already.<\/p>\n
And this is why the Old Firm derby is not like any other game<\/a>, in any other league in any other country in the world.<\/p>\n I remember vividly how I\u2019d be feeling back in the day. By Tuesday I was already starting to drift into my own wee bubble.<\/p>\n If I had a moment to myself I\u2019d start to think about the game and, most of all, how much it meant to people. Not just the fans who will be inside that stadium come kick-off time at Sunday lunchtime but the staff who work around the place and at the training ground.<\/p>\n Rangers John Souttar celebrates at Celtic Park <\/p>\n I\u2019d think about Rangers<\/a> supporters all over the world who would be watching from afar. And I\u2019d think about my mates who have to go about their daily lives, right slap bang in the middle of it. Guys who would have to face the music and be on the receiving end from their colleagues at work on Monday morning, if we didn\u2019t take care of things on the pitch.<\/p>\n That was what was whirling through my mind. There\u2019s only 11 of us lucky enough to run out there wearing those shirts. But there are thousands of others whose happiness depends entirely on what we do next.<\/p>\n Welcome to Barry\u2019s mad wee world. I wouldn\u2019t necessarily recommend it.<\/p>\n But that\u2019s just the way my brain began to work when I was going into a game like the one that\u2019s waiting for Rangers at Ibrox in just a few days\u2019 time.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not just making this up either. I really mean it.<\/p>\n Barry Ferguson<\/p>\n I would disappear into my own thoughts because I realised that the responsibility was about to be all on us. It was our job to put the spring in the step of our own people, hundreds of thousands of them.<\/p>\n I got it from an early age because I\u2019d be in the stands as a youngster, living it and feeling it. I\u2019d see the sheer joy on the faces of grown men all around me and I\u2019d think to myself, \u2018Jesus Christ, look how much this means!\u2019.<\/p>\n I wanted to be able to influence that one day. It was what drove me.<\/p>\n Now you may read this and think to yourself, \u2018This guy is tuned to the moon. He\u2019s clearly not quite right!\u2019. And I get that.<\/p>\n But all I know is that it worked for me. So by the time kick-off came around I was ready to run through brick walls for the jersey.<\/p>\n Yes, as the days ticked on, I would be up and down like a yo-yo. I\u2019d go quiet one minute and then want to talk to anyone who would listen to me the next. Sometimes I\u2019d sit in a corner and talk to myself using the kind of language this paper could not possibly put into print.<\/p>\n By match day I was climbing the walls to get out there.<\/p>\n And I\u2019d spend a lot of time explaining to my team mates just why it mattered so much. I needed them to know why anything less than all three points was simply not acceptable. I needed them to know that this game is everything.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s how it feels all over again going into the weekend because we\u2019re back in a situation where winning this one game of football can have such a huge impact on where the title ends up this season.<\/p>\n And isn\u2019t that the be-all-and-end-all? Wasn\u2019t that the target when this team came together for the first day of pre-season, even if it seems like a lifetime ago now given all that\u2019s gone on over these last eight months?<\/p>\n They have to remember what they\u2019ve been through to get to this point. They have to remember that they were being written off as no-hopers back in September.<\/p>\n And they have to realise that they have this opportunity right in front of them to prove how wrong everyone was. All they have to do now is just reach out and grab it.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not saying that a victory on Sunday will kill Celtic<\/a> off. I do think Rangers will win it but even then I still believe this race could go down to the last weekend of the season. But it would put a massive dent in Celtic\u2019s aspirations and set Rangers up for a Scottish Cup<\/a> tie against them just one week later.<\/p>\n If that prospect doesn\u2019t light a fire in your belly then you\u2019re in the wrong game and playing for the wrong club!<\/p>\n Trust me, some of the new guys will never have experienced anything like what they are about to be thrown into. They should relish every single second of it.<\/p>\n Andreas Skov Olsen of Rangers <\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/0_JS392000224.jpg\")
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