If there is one former Scottish football figure we doubt we’ve ever even mentioned on Ibrox Noise, it’s ex-Celtic manager Gordon Strachan.

An amusing little individual before he joined Celtic, WGS, as he became known, became, of course, engulfed in everything Celtic. And time has certainly shown that he was completely outclassed by the time Walter Smith returned to Rangers in 2007.

But that’s another story for another time.

His comments lately regarding how neither Rangers nor Celtic could cope with the Premier League or even the Championship do seem to be a statement of the bleeding obvious.

Scotland’s European decline

As Ibrox Noise has discussed recently, Celtic and indeed Rangers are so far off European level alone that it is currently embarrassing.

Obviously, we’re not that interested in what Celtic do or don’t do, but the problem, of course, is that their influence in Europe relates to Scotland’s coefficient, which does have an impact on the number of Champions League spots and indeed Europa League spots that Scotland gets.

Rangers, of course, were holding the fort on their own for years, but even that ran out of steam eventually, and now Rangers are abysmal also-rans.

The Europa League isn’t what fans think

The Europa League is probably somewhere below the level of the English Championship.

Now, many fans reading that would be absolutely bewildered at such a comment because, of course, it’s a European competition.

But let me remind you, these are clubs from in many cases from very low level leagues.

Apart from in a very few cases, these are the failed clubs that couldn’t get into the Champions League and weren’t even strong enough to win their domestic title.

And we don’t just mean the top five leagues here. We’re talking clubs from Latvia, Slovakia, Uzbekistan, Bulgaria, Romania and other extremely low-key European countries whose national teams are an absolute joke.

You’re not honestly telling us that the champions of Slovenia are a top-quality side.

The point here is that even the Europa League is a pretty low level of football. It is nowhere near the level of England’s Championship, which is much stronger. And yes, we include pot one in this. Olympiakos, Milan and Lyon are the marquee sides and they’d be nowhere in the Champions League.

That an absolutely abysmal Manchester United could win the Europa League tells you how poor that tournament actually is.

Its only value is that if you win it, you get that secured pot 1 Champions League place. That’s about the only thing going for it.

When it comes to the Conference League, well, that really is bottom-feeding. That would be upper League One level.

Rangers and Celtic couldn’t cope in England

The point is that no wonder Rangers can’t cope, or Celtic can’t cope, in the Premier League. It is a completely different world.

The Championship is also significantly too strong for Rangers and Celtic. Both would deeply struggle and would be in the bottom half at best.

The fact is that while Strachan’s comments are sodding obvious, they’re also entirely true.

And it’s not just, of course, the quality; it’s the budget that he’s mentioned.

The Championship sides can offer bigger wages and bigger transfer fees than Rangers and Celtic.

Now, of course, the transfer fees aren’t all exclusively true. Rangers and indeed Celtic have now regularly moved into the £10 million range, which is what players do go for and cost in the Championship these days, certainly at the upper levels.

The problem is that Rangers are having to spend that amount of cash on players (inc. wages) because otherwise they don’t want to come to the Scottish Premiership. Minsu Kim £8.5M are you kidding me? Kevin Kelsy at 10?

Why would they want to come to the SPL otherwise?

But in the Championship, that kind of price will get you a much stronger player who’s willing to join that league in order to get direct promotion to the promised land of the Premier League.

The reality of Rangers’ level

The reality is that Rangers and Celtic are miles away.

Rangers especially are absolutely gone when it comes to Europe. Our performances in Europe in recent seasons have been catastrophic.

And the fact that the best manager that we’ve had in Europe in recent years has been Russell Martin tells you just how poor Rangers have become.

He did at least get us through two Champions League rounds in a row, which was in itself rather extraordinary.

But nevertheless, at the end of the day, Strachan’s views are not wrong. But up there with the sky is blue.

Rangers and indeed Celtic are miles away from competing even at Championship level in England.

But then, does it really matter at the end of the day?

Because there is absolutely no chance that Rangers or Celtic will ever be leaving Scotland anyway.