By this time last year, Rangers had crashed to league defeats against Celtic, Hibernian, Falkirk, Dundee United, and, of course, the mighty ICT. Paul Le Guen was in the last weeks of a reign that was the biggest disappointment since the first Star Wars prequel. Rangers, in short, were in an itsy bitty of a crisis.

As the end of 2007 approaches, Walter Smith's rebuilt side lie just behind Celtic in the league (and will overtake them by winning games in hand), and have come just one disappointing performance - correction, abysmal, appalling, shocking, abject performance - short of the last 16 in the Champions League.

Yet it would take a brave man to bet on them coming up with the goods and taking the title. Or at least, a braver man, than me. Why is that?

Wednesday night, I think, was the blatant exposure of the limitations that Rangers have. At the back, where David Weir's thirty-seven year old legs were left trailing in the dust of Karim Benzema, where Sasa Papac showed that he is a decent centre-half playing out of position, where Allan McGregor was outed once more as a goalkeeper about good enough for the top six of the SPL, but playing for a team who aspire rather higher than that. At the front, where Daniel Cousin showed he had the mobility of a wheelchair athlete without the wheelchair, where Jean-Claude Darcheville showed that having said mobility is worth nothing if you can't deflect the ball under the crossbar with your shin from three yards, nor if you're dumb enough to get a pointless red card with the game lost, where Steven Whittaker and Lee McCulloch gave Rangers about as much width as Victoria Beckham.

I could go on about the failure to introduce Kris Boyd for more than seven minutes, but you haven't got all day.

Admittedly, some of these problems will be solved once the Ibrox injury list finally begins to ease - Steven Smith and Andy Webster at the back, perhaps DaMarcus Beasley wide (though I still debate his usefulness). But I think Walter would rather have liked one of the five centre-halfs with European experience that Celtic have available, a wide man with the flair and tricks of McGeady, strikers who can actually score goals regularly.

Goodness knows Celtic were really rather fortunate to succeed where Rangers failed. But everyone needs a bit of luck - the trick is to get into the position where a bit of luck is all you need. Therefore, Celtic, for all their limitations, still managed to get to a point where a bit of luck - well, a lot of luck - nicked late winners against Milan and Shakhtar - they kept going, and going, and going, kept the ball at the right end of the pitch, and had the guys who could make something special happen. Rangers, though, never looked like they would get a result off Lyon (it would have been the biggest injustice since the Florida chads), and they simply did not have the options to turn to when it all went up the swanny.

That is why, unless David Murray opens up his bank account again, Rangers simply do not have what it takes to see off Celtic in the title race. Especially once a mister Nakamura-san is back...

L.