Old Firm in shambles: Inside Celtic & Rangers' horror seasons as Hearts look to end Scottish Premiership duopoly

Delve deeper into those statistics and you understand their dominance on a different scale. Not since 1985 has another team pipped them to first place, with Sir Alex Ferguson's Aberdeen side still retaining that honour to this day. Since Rangers returned to the Premiership in 2016, four years after their original company liquidated and the team were demoted to the bottom of the Football League, just twice has an outsider finished as runner up, and even those instances came in the Ibrox outfit's first two years back in the top tier.

But that era of dominance is under serious threat. To varying degrees, Celtic and Rangers have both started the 2025-26 season horribly. Off-field troubles have exacerbated those on the pitch and vice-versa. They are stuck in cycles of calamity, hopeful the next hair-brained scheme will be the one to get them back on track.

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