Simon Jordan with bold claim on how Celtic and Rangers would fare in English football - and it's not good

Celtic and Rangers would both STRUGGLE in the English Championship, Simon Jordan has claimed.

The outspoken former Crystal Palace owner turned pundit has been locked in a war of words with Rod Stewart about the quality of Scottish football, with the Scots rocker standing up for our game amid criticism from sneering English football experts. He's had another go after hearing some claim Manchester City's dominance is making the Premier League boring.

Pep Guardiola's side have now won four titles in a row despite being taken down to the final day this time by Arsenal, with Liverpool earlier falling out of the title race. But Jordan insists it is "ridiculous and frankly unfair" to compare that to the Old Firm's duopoly up here.

He claims there is so much more to the top flight in England, such as the Gunners' story, and says results like them losing to West Ham and Fulham "don't happen" up here. That's despite Rangers falling out of the title race with poor results against Dundee and Ross County as well as others across the season, and Celtic losing to both Hearts and Kilmarnock more than once this campaign.

Brendan Rodgers said the Hoops could reach the top six if they were to move down to England. But Jordan reckons the current squads of the big two would struggle in the SECOND TIER.

Writing in his Daily Mail column, he said: "No sooner had Manchester City lifted the Premier League trophy again than people were bemoaning England's top flight becoming a boring monopoly. It has even been suggested we are turning into the Scottish league. How can such a ridiculous and frankly unfair argument even be given oxygen?

"OK, we've got one side playing such an elite brand of football that it's raising the bar for everybody else, but there is so much more to the Premier League than who comes out on top. Arsenal were millimetres away from City and proved it by taking four points off their title rivals. It came down to tiny margins.

"They will undoubtedly look back with regret on that period over Christmas that saw them lose back-to-back games against West Ham and Fulham and the defeat at home by Aston Villa in the run-in, but that is what marks the Premier League out from so many other leagues around Europe, and certainly Scotland!

"Those kind of results don't happen in a one-tier league. Celtic took 10 points off Rangers and won the title because there's no one else north of the border capable of making a challenge. That's not the case here. There is this view that the English league sneers at other leagues, but that's unfair.

"The fact is the Scottish league, despite the inane mutterings of the Highgate-born crooner Sir Rod Stewart, who took a broadside at me for opining on the lack of quality in Scottish football, doesn't have a broadcast deal of any substance, does not produce great Scottish players like it used to and there are no challengers to Celtic and Rangers, who aren't as good as they used to be either. With their current squads, they'd probably struggle to survive in the Championship.

"That's not sneering, just an accurate summation of where Scottish football is. The only reason people think the Premier League looks down on others is because it dominates the economic landscape of domestic football, with everyone else a pale imitation of what we have."