Where AI thinks Celtic and Rangers would finish in the EFL Championship this season | OneFootball

AI has predicted how the Scottish giants would make their mark if they were to find themselves in English football

It has been widely debated how Scottish Premiership giants, Celtic and Rangers, would fare in English football's top divisions.

The Old Firm rivals have become footballing staples for so many reasons, and are known worldwide despite not having as much stature as the likes of Real Madrid, FC Barcelona and Manchester United.

With the two clubs, unsurprisingly, Scottish football's most successful and resourceful clubs, they have often been compared to the very best English football has to offer, albeit they have largely been trumped by the likes of the Red Devils, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool on the European stage, with the Hoops only narrowly making their way into the UEFA Europa League's play-off round, whilst the Light Blues' continental venture for the current campaign had been over for some time despite the recent conclusion of the competition's 'League Phase'.

It must be said, though, that Celtic have become the most dominant side in the Scottish Premiership in recent times, winning nine league titles in a row, largely helped by the fact Rangers were forced into administration in 2012, having to rebuild as a club back up to their current standpoint after being relegated to the fourth tier.

Many outsiders have often cited that the two Glasgow sides face very little competition other than each other in the SPFL title race, although that trend has certainly been bucked this season, with Hearts enjoying a strong campaign under the management of former Bristol City boss, Derek McInnes.

However, such is the financial disparity between the SPFL and Premier League, it has since been debated whether the two clubs could even reign supreme in the Championship, with sides who have been relegated from the top-flight of English football previously dominating straight away in the second tier as a result of 'Parachute Payments'.

It is an intriguing debate to be had, and Football League World asked AI-based chatbot, ChatGPT, to predict where Celtic and Rangers would finish in the Championship at the end of the current season.

AI predicts strong outcome for Celtic and Rangers if they were plunged into 2025/26 EFL Championship

Before offering a final prediction for both clubs, AI referenced several facets which needed to be taken into account.

The biggest of those is that Celtic and Rangers would generate much more revenue than most Championship sides as a result of their global stature and matchday attendances, with Parkhead and Ibrox often full-to-capacity with crowd numbers of approximately 60,000 and 51,700 respectively.

As such, this has allowed both clubs to recruit strongly in the transfer market in order to assemble squads that are regularly used to winning football matches at league, domestic cup and European levels, and they are significantly stronger than some squads in the Championship as a result.

However, AI claims that a lack of competition makes the bottom half of the Scottish Premiership uncomparable to the competitiveness of the Championship's bottom half, which currently includes two former Premier League champions in the form of Blackburn Rovers and Leicester City.

Although AI believes both clubs would not be the strongest contenders for automatic promotion to the Premier League, the computer would back the Hoops to finish inside the top two, which is currently occupied by Coventry City and Middlesbrough.

AI believes Martin O'Neill currently has a squad capable of outmuscling several second tier sides in terms of quality and mentality, as they would be able to turn many narrow contests in their favour to gain extra points in the promotion race.

Below the West Midlands and Teesside outfit, the remainder of the top six is still somewhat very much to play for, with only a handful of points separating those inside the final two play-off places and the cluster of sides below them.

This is where AI sees the Gers finishing in fourth or fifth, as the computer believes they are slightly behind their cross-city rivals in terms of quality and overall momentum.

It has also been claimed that Danny Rohl's team would need more time to adjust to the rigours of a 46-game campaign, even though the German knows exactly what that would entail through his prior stint at Sheffield Wednesday.

Could we ever see Celtic and Rangers in English football?

AI's hypothetical prediction is certainly reasonable, although it begs the question as to whether we will ever see Celtic and Rangers competing in English football.

It seems hard to envisage such circumstances being allowed at this moment in time, although some will rightfully point out that there are currently four professional Welsh sides currently competing in the English pyramid in the form of Wrexham, Swansea City, Cardiff City and Newport County.

This debate may intensify again if the Red Dragons are to become the third of those sides to reach the Premier League after the Bluebirds and Swans.