Martin O'Neill destroys Rangers as Russell Martin told his flops 'would lose 12-0' to old Celtic foes
O'Neill faced off against Dick Advocaat and Alex McLeish's teams during his five-year stint in the Celtic Park dugout
Former Celtic boss Martin O'Neill has declared the Rangers side he battled against would thump Russell Martin's men 12-0.
The Light Blues continued their winless start to the Premiership campaign with a lacklustre draw against St Mirren.
Martin now faces a mammoth week as he looks to overturn a 3-1 deficit to see off Club Brugge in the second leg of their Champions League playoff before facing Celtic on Sunday.
Defeat to the Hoops would see Brendan Rodgers' side open up a 10-point gap over their rivals just four games into the campaign.
And brutally honest O'Neill didn't hold back on the current crop of talent on Edmiston Drive – declaring that Dick Advocaat and Alex McLeish's teams from the early 2000s would demolish this term.
He told talkSPORT: "I watched a good chunk of the game yesterday and they're not very good, Rangers, and they haven't been good for some quite considerable time.
"On any given day, they can actually match Celtic over a 90 minute period, which they proved last season. But, there is absolutely no guarantee at all about them travelling away from home - or even at Ibrox - and winning games. That has been going on for some considerable time.
"It's a difficult one. Russell Martin should know the situation - he has been there as a player - so he knows winning is the most important thing.
"If ever it applied to two football clubs it's Celtic and Rangers. You've got to win. You've got to hit the ground running, because there are a lot of doubters.
"I got lucky in many aspects , because I won the opening game of the season. I was actually asked the question; we played on the Sunday, my very, very first game and Rangers had won, and Rangers were a terrific side in those days, really terrific - and Rangers had won the opening game at Ibrox and we were away at Dundee United.
"And I was asked by a journalist 'if we didn't win today, was the league over?' - and that frightened the life out of me. We weren't even expecting Rangers to drop too many points.
"But the Rangers side I was up against then would beat this Rangers side 12-0."
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