SPL Winner Odds 25/26 Season: Can Martin’s Rangers break Celtic’s stranglehold?

Celtic romped to a fourth consecutive Scottish Premiership title last season, finishing 17 points ahead of nearest challengers and Glaswegian rivals, Rangers, who were forced to settle for second once again, having last tasted league success under Steven Gerrard in 2020/21.

The two clubs are, once more, considered the only realistic contenders for the ultimate prize in Scottish football. Below you can find the SPL Winner Odds 25/26 Season, with an analysis of both the Bhoys' and the Gers' title credentials.

Celtic @ 4/11

Surprise, surprise. The dominant side in Scotland over the past decade-plus, winning 13 of the last 14 top-flight titles, have been installed as clear favourites to collect the trophy next May. The dominant nature of their victory in 2024/25, where they ended the regular 33-game season 15 points ahead of Rangers before extending the gap to 17 after the five-match split, says it all.

While the Gers have made a managerial change in each of the last four seasons, Celtic have remained stable for the last couple, with Brendan Rodgers making a triumphant return to the Parkhead dugout by masterminding back-to-back league-and-cup doubles, albeit the most recent cup success came in the Scottish League Cup, rather than the more fabled Scottish Cup.

Still, Rodgers has plenty of credit in the bank, especially after guiding his side to the knockout phase of last season's Uefa Champions League, where they were only edged out 3-2 on aggregate by Bayern Munich in the play-offs.

Celtic will be expected to make more progress in Europe this term, but the league remains their bread and butter, and securing five titles on the trot will be Rodgers' main focus.

Football Odds

Once again, it's hard to back against the Bhoys, despite the departure of star winger Nicolas Kuhn to ambitious Italian outfit Como. While the exit of the German, who scored 13 times and registered eight assists in 32 league appearances last season, is a big blow, the return of former fan favourite Kieran Tierney, six years after he left for Arsenal, has raised spirits, while Shin Yamada will hope to be the next big thing from Japan after a couple of prolific campaigns in the J1 League with Kawasaki Frontale.

Currently, there is a frustration that Celtic haven't been more active in the market, but with more than a month left of the window, further additions are expected, especially once other clubs across Europe find out their continental fates.

Certainly, there is money to burn following the initial £16.5m fee paid for Kuhn.

Regardless, Celtic will expect to swat away the challenge of Rangers, who finished a distant second last season.

With Daizen Maeda and Adam Idah, who struck 16 and 13 times, respectively, in the 2024/25 Scottish top-flight, still on the books, as well as seasoned veterans Callum McGregor and Kasper Schmeichel, Rodgers' squad remains stacked with quality and experience. Perhaps not enough to make a big push in Europe, at present, but certainly enough to claim a fifth consecutive league title next May.

Rangers @ 2/1

Can Russell Martin be the man to revive Rangers' fortunes? Supporters of the Light Blues will certainly hope so after four successive seasons of finishing second-best to Celtic in the Scottish Premiership.

Martin wasn't the most popular appointment of all time at Ibrox after his sacking from Southampton in the immediate aftermath of their 5-0 thrashing last December by Tottenham Hotspur, who inflicted the Saints' 13th defeat of the Premier League season, in just 16 games. The 39-year-old's apparent refusal to alter his tactics, despite the huge step-up in quality from the Championship to the top tier, left him as something of a pariah in the Premier League world, with fans of other clubs quick to mock his ideas and principles of play.

The 29-cap Scotland international, who spent the second half of the 2017/18 season on loan at Rangers from Norwich City, making 17 appearances, replaces Barry Ferguson in the Ibrox dugout, with the former club captain placed in interim charge from February 24 following the removal of Philippe Clement as head coach. Ferguson guided the Gers to the quarter-finals of the Uefa Europa League, but was unable to transform their fortunes in the league, ending the campaign with just two wins from seven.

SPL Odds

Martin has, at least, had the benefit of a full pre-season, with the former MK Dons and Swansea City boss appointed on June 5.

He got off to a winning start last Tuesday as his new side beat Greek giants Panathinaikos 2-0 in the first leg of their Champions League second-round qualifier at Ibrox.

Granted, the Shamrock are hardly packed with superstars, but Greek striker Fotis Ioannidis has been prolific in Europe over the past few seasons, left-back Georgios Kyriakopoulos claimed four assists in Serie A last term, while Brazilian winger Tete, who came off the bench in Glasgow, notched five times in 12 Conference League appearances in 2024/25.

So, Panathinaikos are no mugs, and while Rangers started slow, Martin will have been delighted to get off the mark with a victory.

There was even a debut goal for summer signing Djeidi Gassama, who was introduced in the 75th minute and doubled Rangers' lead three minutes later.

The 21-year-old French forward isn't the only new face in the Rangers ranks, with Colombian Oscar Cortes, Norwegian Theo Aasgaard and English trio Joe Rothwell, Max Aarons and Emmanuel Fernandez also among the pre-season arrivals at Ibrox.

Supporters will be hoping for more excitement this year, but results must be first and foremost; otherwise, Martin will go the same way as his predecessors over the past few years.

He's not someone who boasts much winning experience, though, having won just a single league title, League 1 in 2009/10, as a player, and none as a manager, although he did successfully guide Southampton to the Premier League via the Championship play-offs.

Breaking Celtic's stranglehold on the Scottish Premiership feels like an almost insurmountable task in his first season, and on paper, Rangers' squad is inferior to the Bhoys', so it would take a brave person to back a Rangers renaissance in 2025/26.

Hearts @ 25/1

Onto the also-rans, then, and first up are Hearts, who are in from 66/1 last year, but remain third-favourites in the SPL title race, despite a seventh-place finish in 2024/25, when they picked up just 52 points from 38 games - 18 fewer than they did the previous campaign, when they eased to third place.

Hearts had two permanent managers last season, Steven Naismith and Neil Critchley, with Liam Fox appointed as interim after the departure of both.

Derik McInnes is the latest man to try his hand at handling the Hearts hotseat, with the former St Johnstone, Bristol City, Aberdeen and Kilmarnock boss tasked with pushing the club back up to the higher echelons of the Scottish Premiership.

Steering the Jam Tarts to their first top-tier league title since 1959/60, though, is mission impossible.

Today's Football Fixtures

Hibernian @ 80/1

Hibernian took Hearts' place as the 'best of the rest' last season, clinching third ahead of Dundee United, but they still fell 17 points short of Rangers, and 34 of Celtic.

Like the Jam Tarts, Hibs have lifted the league title on four occasions, but not since 1951/52, while Aberdeen, in 1984/85, were the last club outside of the 'Big Two' to win the thing.

We can all dream, but realistically, it's coming down to Celtic and Rangers to take the title again, and like the last four seasons, it should be the Bhoys who come out on top.

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