Game over - Rangers will take the title

Be in no doubt - Rangers will win the SPL this season. For Celtic to retain their title, Gordon Strachan will have to do what he has so far failed to do, and work out how to beat Uncle Watty's light blues. He'll then have to do the same again in the last Old Firm derby of the season. And then he'll have to hope that Rangers drop more points than them in their remaining 3 fixtures. Never gonna happen, in other words.

Only the most blinkered Rangers fan would deny that they've had a decent slice of luck this season, but that doesn't matter now. You could list at length the games in which Rangers have played poorly, but won because the opposition have been even worse, but it doesn't change the table. They are in driving seat, and that's all they will care about.

So Celtic's 3-in-a-row title aspirations are over, and the inquest will begin as to what went wrong, and whether Strachan is still the man to lead them. Celtic have - with the possible exception of the Champion's League - underperformed this season, after decent investment over the summer. Strachan strengthened the squad, but some of his acquisitions have disappointed - Donati, for instance - while others are forgotten already. The team has frequently been boring to watch, and ground out results against teams they should have steam-rollered.

This weekend, Derek Riordan went public on his "Celtic hell", accusing Strachan of refusing to play him now because he might do well, and therefore embarass the manager for having given him such limited opportunities up until now. Scott Brown - another ex-Hibee - looks a shadow of the player he was at Easter Road, arguably too restricted at Celtic to play his natural game.

It looks like a major re-build is required this summer, rather than some gentle tweaks. Will Strachan be the man to do it?