There is a long tradition at Celtic, so we are told, which suggests that Celtic play in cavalier fashion; free-flowing, adventurous, swashbuckling and bold, but of course like many stories surrounding this club, this is not the whole truth. Until Jock Stein arrived at Celtic in the nineteen-sixties, there was nothing in the way Celtic played to suggest that this was a club which played football more stylishly than the rest.
Jock Stein changed Celtic`s course though, dramatically and aesthetically, and ordinary football soon gave way to a type of game which was both refreshing and spectacular. This was when a new tradition of attacking play took root at Celtic, and middle-aged Celtic fans who lived through this era seem keen now to return to a style of football that is genuinely exciting rather than enduring more of the same predictable and uninspiring product that until recently had brought reasonable success to Celtic under Gordon Strachan.
Winning ugly is tolerated at Celtic, but losing ugly, especially for a non-Celtic-minded manager like Gordon Strachan, provokes change, and Tony Mowbray looks likely to be the man chosen to deliver to Celtic what it mistakenly thinks is its birthright - cavalier football.
The task facing Mowbray is not impossible; he has only one team to beat to become champions, and he`ll have a budget at his disposal to bring in new blood, and although his methods failed in the English Premiership, success with a well-funded attacking game is certainly possible in Scotland.
Rangers, under Walter Smith, tend to play a safer game, and despite the spectacle too often being dull, as was witnessed in the Scottish Cup Final against Falkirk where the weaker team dominated possession, it cannot be denied that success has been delivered while playing secure football, including a record 52nd league championship flag.
Next season then, Rangers and Celtic will go head to head in the usual tribal way, but with a distinct contrast in playing styles, and being old enough to remember when Celtic were last successful playing adventurous football, I have to admit, that as a Rangers supporter, I prefer to see Celtic adopting the measured game of Strachan than playing with attacking intensity.
Next term we`ll see Rangers playing as predictably as ever under Walter Smith and up against a Celtic side which is in the mood for change. We have to wonder if the tried and tested methods of Rangers will be challenged by a Celtic manager whose skills couldn`t save his previous team from relegation.
Rangers, as usual, will play in Test Match fashion, playing the long and patient game, while Celtic will adopt a Twenty/20 style of play, lashing out along the way, big-hitting and risk-taking - but I have to say, much as I warm to attacking and adventurous football, next season, if it triumphs, it will leave me cold.