20 under Rangers did what they always do Clement they bottled erit and they're reduced to the quivering wreck of a team again

Old Firm win now would be just like them... but still meaningless

- KEITH JACKSON

THERE'S a need to tread carefully around matters of such a delicate nature.

Especially at this time of year, when there are youngsters around and all sorts of sensitive souls.

Like fans of Rangers and Celtic.

But, even so, eventually there comes a point in time when it can't go left unsaid any longer.

So whisper this gently, the truth of the matter is there is no such thing as a title race.

It simply does not exist. It never did.

Maybe in some fantastical parallel universe where fat men in red suits hand out presents for free but not here in the cold reality of Scottish football's back garden.

And certainly not this Christmas time, never mind moving forward into the New Year.

Forget what happened in Motherwell yesterday where Rangers saw Celtic's miniwobble and raised it into a fullscale sphincteric collapse.

In truth this latest woeful, error-strewn capitulation of two more top-flight points was inconsequential before it had even kicked off.

After a brief period of intrigue, the sanity clause came to town in Paisley on Boxing Day to re-establish some perspective and seasonal reality.

And it's reduced the Ibrox outfit to a quivering wreck of a team all over again.

Those back-to-back performances represent a microcosm of their season so far full of unfathomable selections and lacking in intensity and aggression.

Yes, they mounted desperate second half salvage missions but, even when Rangers looked capable of dragging themselves out of a hole, they were really only flattering to deceive.

Instead, they did what they always do under Philippe Clement.

They bottled it when it seemed like a full recovery was theirs for the taking.

All of which sums Clement's Rangers up in a nutshell.