The Scottish Premiership may already be out of reach, but Rangers are aiming to claim Old Firm bragging rights as early as 2025.
It's been a difficult season for Philippe Clement's Gers, with the 2020/21 Scottish champions already 14 points behind the runaway leaders. Celtic. Few are certain of Clement's ability to return Rangers to the promised land and a heavy defeat at Ibrox on Thursday could condemn the Belgian to the chopping block.
While this fixture remains one of the fiercest in world football, it has been dominated by the Hoops in recent years. Rangers have failed to win any of their previous seven meetings, and they go into this derby in sub-par form.
Here's the squad Clement could pick for the visit of Celtic to kick off the new year.
GK: Liam Kelly – Regular starter Jack Butland will miss out after spending New Year's Eve in hospital with what was described as “significant internal bleeding”. He has been fired and will look to his deputy, Kelly, to take his place here.
RB: Dujon Sterling – Injuries have pushed Sterling into a starting role recently, with the Englishman, who is also adept in midfield, likely to switch to right-back with James Tavernier injured.
CB: Leon King – The 20-year-old is in line for a rare start in the big occasion following Tavernier's injury. King hasn't played a single minute in the league this season, but the lack of center backs could force Clement's hand.
CB: Leon Balogun – Balogun missed Sunday's tie at Motherwell after scoring a strike on Boxing Day, but Clement desperately needs him back in the Rangers defence.
LB: Ridvan Yilmaz – Yilmaz's career in Glasgow has never quite taken off, and he is a name to keep an eye on in the January transfer window amid reports of a possible return to Turkey.
CM: Mohamed Diomande – A regular at Clement this term, Diomande is a versatile customer capable of performing multiple roles. The midfielder scored in the Scottish League Cup final defeat of Rangers in December.
CM: Nicolas Raskin – Clementi's compatriot is a diligent operator who is seemingly never too far from a booking. Ibrox will return to Raskin to fire up the crowd once or twice on Thursday.
RM: Vaclav Cerny – The loanee has enjoyed a fairly productive loan spell so far, scoring seven times in the Scottish Premiership. The happy Czech joins Cyril Dessers at the top of Rangers' goalscoring charts this season.
AM: Nedim Bajrami – The scorer of Albania's 23-second goal against Italy at Euro 2024 has not offered much in the way of final third production this season, but he is a relentless operator who performs a key tactical function for Clement.
LM: Janis Hagi – Rangers have some options in wide areas, especially after Rabbi Matondo returned from injury at the weekend, but we could see Hagi get the nod down the left to get to Alistair Johnston.
ST: Hamza Igmane – Igamane is capable of breaking out, but he could get a starting position up front on Thursday given the marked form he has shown in recent weeks. The 22-year-old scored twice from the bench to salvage a point at Motherwell last time out.