As two men who have been over the course and distance more times than they would care to mention, Graeme Souness and Neil Lennon know what it takes to triumph in a title race.
Both as players and as managers on either side of the Old Firm divide, they understand the pressures and demands that come with the job.
For the two Old Firm icons, there comes a point in the season where ability will only take you so far – and it would seem that juncture has now been reached.
This past weekend saw Rangers and Celtic both lose in the league for the first time since 2018. With just nine games left to play, it’s now squeaky bum time.
As the home straight comes sharply into focus, the ability to go on and win a league title becomes a question of willpower as much as anything else to get it over the line.
Celtic and Rangers are separated by just two points at the top of the Scottish Premiership
But the arch-rivals both lost on the same weekend in the league for the first time in six years
Your browser does not support iframes.
Despite the obvious differences in terms of their allegiance, Souness and Lennon are united by their belief that the title race will ultimately come down to bottle and holding your nerve.
On a weekend which saw Rangers lose 2-1 at home to Motherwell and Celtic lose 2-0 away at Tynecastle, Souness said: ‘It is just about not letting it affect you.
‘Every game, and it is the oldest cliché in football, one game at a time. That has been and gone. There is nothing you can do about that. That result has gone.
‘Fortunately, the result on Sunday went for them [Rangers]. So it’s as was, if you like. It is very much game on.
‘What I found when I was here, we could be second in the league and playing the best football, better than Celtic.
‘But because we had lost an Old Firm game or had drawn a couple of games, all the focus and criticism was on us for being second and the team that’s first sails off into the sunset, everything is fabulous.
‘And vice versa – if we had been first and they had been second. It’s how you deal with it. And Rangers have dealt with it. Now it’s Celtic’s turn to deal with it.
‘I don’t want to be doing Mr Rodgers’ team talk for him, but it is how they deal with it.
‘You have to be a big player to play for the Old Firm. You have to have big b*****ks.
‘But there is still a lot of football, both will drop points. There are nine games left and there will be another disaster for someone – if not for both of them – between now and the end of the season.’
On the other side of the city, Brendan Rodgers and Celtic are coming to terms with a damaging defeat at Tynecastle on Sunday afternoon.
A game packed with VAR and refereeing controversies, Celtic ultimately blew the chance to leapfrog Rangers and reclaim top spot.
They remain two points adrift of their rivals, but Lennon insists that any notion of the reigning champions being written off should be used as fuel and motivation.
‘It does come down to bottle, yes,’ said Lennon. ‘I would love to be involved in it. I have been involved in many as a player and as a manager and it is just brilliant.
‘I think the pivotal games will be when they play each other.
‘Rangers have got the Europa League, which is great for them and I’d rather be in it than not. But I understand again where Brendan was coming from after the Motherwell game, they have got to write their own story.
‘If people are writing them off, that’s a good thing for me. You use that as a fuel, you use that as a motivation.’
Despite slipping up at the weekend, it is Rangers who hold still the advantage thanks to Philippe Clement engineering a revival in recent months.
Since taking the job back in October, he has revitalised Rangers and overhauled Celtic at the top of the table.
Souness was involved in the recruitment and interview process when the club were searching for a successor to Michael Beale.
The Ibrox legend insists he has been highly impressed with what Clement has achieved in a relatively short space of time so far.
‘When I was talking to him [Clement] in the interview, I said to him: “This job is like nothing else”,’ said Souness.
‘I am Scottish, I had been to Ibrox maybe eight times when I was a kid, I had played for Scotland, I had played for big football clubs.
‘But nothing in that prepared me for being manager of Rangers. It is unique job which brings unique challenges.
Rangers icon Graeme Souness said it will come down to who deals with setbacks better, while he also insisted players must have ‘big b*****ks’ to deal with the pressure of the title race
Former Celtic player and boss Neil Lennon claimed it would come down to the Old Firm derbies
‘It must be the same for Celtic managers. You are expected to win every game. I have had that at Galatasaray, Benfica and Liverpool. I have lived with that.
‘But it was a shock to me. Drawing a game can be a bit of a disaster in some people’s eyes.
‘I explained that to him. I said: “If you get it right, it will be the best job you have ever had. On the downside, if it doesn’t go well, you might be looking at it as the worst job”.
‘There is no finishing second in May and saying: “We have had a good season”. That is not a good season in the eyes of the supporters. I got that pretty quickly.’
Graeme Souness and Neil Lennon were promoting Viaplay’s live and exclusive coverage of Celtic v Livingston and Hibernian v Rangers on Sunday. Viaplay is available to stream from viaplay.com or via your TV provider on Sky, Virgin TV and Amazon Prime as an add-on subscription.
ncG1vNJzZmhqZGy7psPSmqmorZ6Zwamx1qippZxemLyue82erqxnk5bCrbLInqOdZZ2auaO71KulnmWSqr%2BosdFmqZ6rpJbCs63NrWSbraKcsrPAzquwZqyYlsFuws6cmKWkqWLAtrzPqKmtZaCWuaa%2F06KlnmWZo3qpscCvoKWxXZ%2ByuLXSoWSaqpWWeqPB0aeqZpyfrLtutc1mnaKqlWKwsLzSZqurnZGptq%2BzjKKrZpmjYsC2v8%2BimqKnpah8