15 point gap is a tantalising prospect

Had you suggested after the first week of the season that Celtic would be sitting top of the table by the middle of November you'd most likely have been referred to JP McMurphy's consultant and fitted out for one of those canvas cardigans that buckle up the back.

Yet here we are, having dumped the Dark Side out of the CIS Cup in one of the most one sided derbies in recent memory with a chance to beat them in the league to fifteen points clear of them... and counting. Who'd a thunk of it?!

As the weeks go by Celtic look by far the best football team in the SPL (a bit like being described as the best dressed man in Kabul, granted, but you take the point I hope) and there is growing evidence that they can continue to improve under WGS. If he is able to augment the squad with a couple of astute acquisitions in January and hold on to the players he really wants to keep then he might just stay on track to surpass what MON achieved in his first season in charge. Strachan's team are already ahead of schedule in this regard.

Strachan deserves immense credit for salvaging something from that train wreck in July. MON didn't have such an obdurate Hearts team to contend with - we're still assuming that the proverbial bubble is about to pop once the injuries and suspensions start to bite; the way Hearts play there should be plenty of the latter - but the Rangers outfit he faced down with such aplomb was unrecognisable from the sorry looking bunch of misfits who contended (kind of) the CIS Cup tie at the start of November.

Far be it from us to derive any pleasure from their discomfort... but we're going to anyway.

They've had this implosion coming to them for a while. As the Orcs bombard the phone-ins and hotlines with solutions ranging from give Fernando back the armband to bring back Maurice Ross, the root cause of their troubles is being ignored by the media in a way it never was during the travails of the old Celtic board.

Back in the early 90s the sports hacks were happily moonlighting as financial experts in order to hasten the end for the old guard at Parkhead. These days they seem strangely muted on the subject of finances at the Death Star, seemingly paralysed with fear at the thought of writing anything reflecting poorly on David Murray's performance in charge of Rangers.

With Fergus in Glasgow recently to unveil the Brother Walfrid statue, it was difficult not to draw comparisons between how the two have fared at the hands of the hacks (McCann did always say that the way Rangers were run was a disaster waiting to happen... the dogs bark but the circus moves on, eh?).

I also can't help feeling that the heat being turned up under big Eck's hot seat is nothing compared to the ritual flogging in print Strachan would have suffered on a daily basis had his side put together a string of results as mediocre as McLeish has done in the last few months.

The big news off the pitch since our last issue - timely as well given the state of our oldest rivals at the moment - is that Celtic have announced plans to raise £15 million through a share issue. Dermot Desmond has agreed to underwrite £10 million worth of it. If it is a success then it will address the issue of a training academy (even though dribbling round the dog turds and broken glass at Barrowfield doesn't seem to have done the present crop of youngsters any harm) and it will strengthen the balance sheet.

Dermot has his critics but there don't seem to be too many like him out there forming an orderly queue to help the club out with that kind of money.

The cynics out there might do well to heed the words of the Blessed Martin when he said that we were lucky to have DD. And if you still don't trust him then you'd better start buying shares to stop him getting his hands on them.

MARMADUKE BAGLEHOLE