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Football

09th May 2019

Steven Gerrard confirms Rangers will not give guard of honour to Celtic

Hardly surprising

Darragh Murphy

Gerrard distanced himself from the decision

Steven Gerrard has confirmed his club’s stance on refusing to give Celtic a guard of honour this weekend.

Celtic secured their eighth consecutive Scottish Premiership title with a 3-0 victory over Aberdeen last week and as fate would have it, their next league game coincides with the final Old Firm clash of the season.

Given the history of the rivalry between Rangers and Celtic, speculation quickly began regarding whether or not Steven Gerrard’s side would welcome the newly-crowned champions to Ibrox with a traditional guard of honour on Sunday.

Bhoys legend Chris Sutton jokingly suggested that he expected Rangers to “do the right thing” with Neil Lennon and his players but Gers confirmed that they would not be offering a guard of honour to their fiercest rivals.

Gerrard distanced himself from the decision to refuse Celtic the welcome that is typically given to newly-crowned champions and stated that he was simply following club orders.

“To be honest with you my thoughts on it are not important on that subject,” Gerrard told the media.

“The club have made a decision on that and decided there won’t be a guard of honour, so my thoughts are irrelevant.

“I will follow what I’m told to do by the people in charge of the club.”

Celtic remain in the running for an unprecedented domestic treble-treble, with their Scottish Cup final clash against Hearts scheduled for May 25.