Rangers, founded in 2012, play at Ibrox Stadium and remain one of the central reference points in Scottish football, not least for Celtic supporters. Their recent honours give the modern club its shape: the 2020/21 Premiership title was followed by the 2021/22 Scottish Cup, contributing to totals of four Premiership titles, three Scottish Cups and two League Cups.
The 2025/26 campaign was a poor one by their own measure. Rangers finished tenth in the Premiership after 38 rounds, a position that sits awkwardly beside a squad valued at around £108m by Transfermarkt. They also competed in Europa League qualifying at the third-round stage.
The squad was sizeable and relatively young, with 37 players at an average age of 24. The attacking numbers were respectable enough – 2.1 goals per home match and 1.9 away – but the defensive return was less convincing, with more than a goal conceded per game both at Ibrox and on the road. They scored first inside 20 minutes in seven of 19 league matches, without that translating into a settled league campaign.
Youssef Chermiti led the scoring with 15 goals, ahead of James Tavernier on 14 and Bojan Miovski on 13, with Djeidi Gassama and Thelo Aasgaard also contributing. The closing league sequence told its own story: a 5-2 win at Falkirk came after defeats to Hibernian, Celtic, Hearts and Motherwell, before an earlier 6-3 win at Falkirk.
Rangers ended the season with attacking threat, a costly lack of control, and a league finish well below expectation. For Celtic, they remain the familiar domestic rival – materially strong, historically relevant, and plainly short of where they expected to be.
