‘Best in the league’ – Raskin & Gassama react to what Rangers player posted on Instagram

There is a familiar rhythm to the days after an Old Firm match. The result sets the tone, the newspapers dissect the tactics, and the players go quiet for a moment before their phones take over. In 2026 a footballer’s post-match Instagram carousel has become almost as much a part of the story as the final whistle. It is where the dressing room says what it really thinks, in emojis and one-line comments, with the supporters watching.

Dujon Sterling’s post after Rangers’ win at Celtic Park was one of the more revealing of these. Rangers had just beaten their greatest rivals for the second time in a week. The right-back shared a set of images celebrating the result, and the replies read like a verdict on his afternoon. Nicolas Raskin, one of the club’s most gifted midfielders, called him the best in the league. Djeidi Gassama, the winger who spent the match terrorising Celtic’s back line, chipped in with a joke. Former Ibrox favourite Andy Halliday went further still.

This piece looks at what was said, why it landed the way it did, and what it tells us about a player who has quietly become central to Derek McInnes’s Rangers

According to Rangers News, Sterling posted a series of pictures on Instagram once the match was over, marking the victory, and the upload drew a wave of attention from teammates, ex-Rangers players and well-known names in English football

The most eye-catching reply came from outside the Rangers bubble. Chelsea captain Reece James, who came through the Stamford Bridge academy at the same time as Sterling, responded with a saluting emoji. It was a small gesture, but a meaningful one. James is an England international and captain of one of Europe’s biggest clubs, and he knows exactly what it takes to defend at the top level. A salute from an old youth-team colleague is a quiet way of saying: I saw that, and well done.

Then came the voices from inside the changing room, which is where the post gets interesting. Raskin’s comment was the headline. Gassama’s was the funniest. Halliday’s was the most theatrical. Together they made a picture of a player who is not just respected but liked, and in a squad that has been through plenty of turbulence, that counts for a lot

The first is who Raskin is. He is a Belgium international whose reputation has been built on intelligence as much as energy. He reads games in the middle of the pitch, sees who is overloaded and who is exposed, and knows what a full-back is up against when a winger is running at him. When a midfielder with that eye singles out a defender for the highest praise, it is more than a friend being friendly. It is a professional assessment from someone who watched the whole afternoon from the centre of it.

The second is the nature of the compliment. “Best in the league” is a big claim in a division that includes Celtic’s own defenders and every full-back in Scotland. Social media comments are not scouting reports, and no one should read this as a statistical finding. But the sentiment is clear. In Raskin’s eyes, Sterling did not merely have a good game. He made himself a reference point.

The third is timing. Raskin’s own future is a live subject around Ibrox. Rangers News has reported that he is more likely to leave in January than to stay in Glasgow. A midfielder with one eye on the exit could easily be forgiven for detaching a little. Instead he was publicly cheering a teammate’s performance, which suggests his commitment to the group has not wavered while the noise around his future continues.

If Raskin’s line was the sincere one, Gassama’s was the mischievous one. The winger left a cheeky comment asking to see Sterling’s pocket, which was his way of applauding the defensive lockdown Sterling put on Celtic’s attackers.

It is easy to skim past a comment like that, but it says something about how the two players relate. Gassama and Sterling sit on the same side of the pitch in a sense, one attacking the space ahead of the other’s runs. There is a natural back-and-forth between a right-sided defender and the wide players who share his channel. The joke also has a slightly competitive flavour. Read one way, it is a nod to the idea that Sterling had a Celtic attacker tucked away for the afternoon. Read another way, it is a teammate asking, with a smile, what the secret is.

There is a further irony worth appreciating. Gassama was not exactly a bystander on the day. His dink about ten minutes before half-time struck the far post, and it might have doubled Rangers’ lead. He arrived at the club in the summer of 2025 with a reputation for producing moments out of nothing. He joined from Sheffield Wednesday on 15 July 2025 on a four-year deal, and scored on his debut in a Champions League qualifier against Panathinaikos. He has always had the talent. What supporters have wanted is consistency, and a derby afternoon where he hit the woodwork and then cheerfully praised a colleague online is the kind of relaxed, confident presence a winger needs to play his best football.

Gassama also won his first call-up to the Mauritania national team in March 2026, so there is plenty going on in his career to keep him hungry. That he still had time to poke fun at Sterling in the comments suggests he is comfortable in this group.

Then there is Andy Halliday, who never met an understatement he liked. The former Rangers midfielder declared Sterling the greatest one-on-one defender in history after watching him shut down Celtic’s threats.

This is, of course, a joke, and a good one. Halliday spent years in the Rangers dressing room and understands the code of banter that runs through it. Nobody genuinely thinks Sterling has surpassed every defender who ever lived. But the choice of exaggeration is telling. You do not pick “one-on-one defending” as the skill to inflate unless it is what you noticed. The man watching from the outside saw Sterling win duels, stay on his feet and refuse to be beaten on the outside or the inside. That is the exact quality that makes Old Firm right-backs valuable.

Todd Cantwell, another former Ibrox playmaker, also registered his approval by liking the post. A like costs nothing and means little on its own. But when several former and current teammates all pile in on one post, the accumulation matters. It tells you the goodwill toward Sterling extends beyond the current squad into the wider Rangers family

Praise on Instagram is one thing. It is worth checking what happened on the pitch.

Rangers won 1-0, and the goal came when Ryan Naderi reacted quickest to a rebound after Celtic keeper Viljami Sinisalo could not hold a long-range effort from Min-Su Kim. Before that, Celtic had a strike from Auston Trusty ruled out for offside. The margin was slim, and Rangers had to defend it.

That is where Sterling earned his reputation for the afternoon. Celtic’s first shot on target did not arrive until after half-time, when Ivor Pandur produced a big save to keep out a Colby Donovan header. A home side that manages one meaningful effort in the second half has been suffocated, and suffocation is never the work of one player. But a right-back who stops the opposition’s left side from getting into good positions is a large part of the reason.

The evidence is not only in the neutral reports. Rangers News named Sterling its man of the match, ahead of match-winner Naderi. That is a striking decision. Goalscorers usually take the headlines, and a defender who edges the man who scored the only goal has done something out of the ordinary. Such awards are subjective, but they usually follow a pattern: the player did the difficult, unglamorous work while the game was in the balance.

It was also a dominant Rangers performance in other respects. Olwethu Makhanya had a volley ruled out by VAR for handball, and Kieran Tierney struck the woodwork for Celtic at the other end. The Scotsman’s report said the visitors’ main frustration was that they only won by a single goal. It noted that Dan Neil crossed from the same area a few minutes after Naderi’s cross, without anyone getting on the end of it. A side creating chances like that can afford to defend calmly, and Sterling, as one of the players who did the defending, deserves credit for making the calm look easy

The context makes the reaction easier to understand. The Parkhead win came a week after a 3-0 victory over the same opponents in the Premier Sports Cup at Ibrox. Two wins over Celtic in seven days is the sort of run that changes the atmosphere around a club.

McInnes became the first manager since 1991 to win his first two Old Firm games, and Celtic’s lead at the top of the Premiership was cut to two points. After a period in which Rangers’ season had felt uncertain, a week like that resets expectations. It also gives players the licence to enjoy themselves, which is exactly what the comments under Sterling’s post look like: a group of players, a couple of former colleagues and a friend from Chelsea all in a good mood.

McInnes himself struck a measured note. He stressed that three points at Parkhead are worth the same as any other league fixture, but called the win a good reference point for how the players handled a tough environment. That sounds like a manager who wants his squad to enjoy the moment without getting carried away. The Instagram comments, in their own way, are the sound of that enjoyment.

There is a bigger story behind Sterling’s afternoon, and it concerns how Rangers rebuilt the right side of their defence. Rangers News notes that eyebrows were raised when the club chose not to sign a high-profile replacement for James Tavernier when he left, but Sterling’s recent form shows why the club trusted him and Kosta Nedeljkovic as its right-back options.

Tavernier was not a normal full-back. He was the captain, the set-piece specialist and the source of an extraordinary number of goals and assists over many years. Replacing him with a like-for-like player was never realistic, and it is understandable that some supporters wanted a headline signing. What Rangers appear to have done instead is trust a different profile: a defender whose strength is the defending itself.

That is a real shift in emphasis. Tavernier’s game was built around attacking output. Sterling’s game, as the reaction to Sunday shows, is built around denying the opposition’s best attackers. In a derby, where the margin for error is thin and the home crowd tries to turn every loose ball into a threat, that is a valuable trade. It is also a reminder that a right-back can be judged by a completely different scorecard from the one Tavernier set.

None of this means Rangers are better off without their old captain. It means they have found a workable solution, and Sunday was a strong argument that the solution is worki

Squads are not made only of talent. They are made of relationships, and relationships show up in small ways: who congratulates whom, who jokes with whom, who takes the time to say something warm publicly. A defender who gets a warm reception from a Belgian midfielder, a young winger, a former club stalwart and a Chelsea captain has clearly earned a broad base of respect

That respect also feeds back into performance. Defenders tend to do their best work when the players around them trust them. Raskin can sit in front of Sterling knowing he will hold his side. Gassama can attack knowing that the space behind him is covered. Trust of that kind cannot be manufactured, but it can be seen in the way a squad talks about one another.

There is also a lesson here about how derby performances are remembered. Goals are the currency of football, and Naderi’s finish will be the moment replayed most often. But the players inside the group know who did the difficult, thankless work. The comments under Sterling’s post are the dressing room’s way of saying so out loud.

The single note of caution in the coverage concerns Sterling’s body. Rangers News closes with the hope that Sterling can avoid any injury niggles this term, and it has previously reported on a setback that raised questions about his availability. Anyone who follows the club will understand the concern. A defender who performs at this level is hard to replace, and Nedeljkovic, however capable, is a different type of player.

That is the fine balance for McInnes. If Sterling stays fit, Rangers have a right-back with the confidence of his teammates and the form to justify it. If he does not, the depth chart is tested. The best any supporter can do is hope for a clean run and enjoy the football while it lasts

The international break gives Rangers a moment to breathe, and it will give the players a chance to reflect on a very good week. It will also give the story a pause. Some of the discussion will turn to Naderi, whose finishing has become a regular talking point. He arrived from the German third division in January for a reported fee of around £5 million, and Sunday was another reason supporters are happy with the business. Some will turn to Raskin’s future. Some will look ahead to the next Premiership fixture and ask whether this run has real legs.

Through all of it, Sterling’s post will stand as a small but telling record of a good afternoon. A right-back who joined the celebrations with a few photos and got a salute from Chelsea’s captain, a compliment from a Belgian international, a joke from a winger and a comedy tribute from a former teammate is a player who has earned his place.

Whether Raskin’s verdict holds over a full season is a question for the coming months. Nobody serious will settle the “best in the league” debate on the strength of one Instagram comment. But on the evidence of Sunday, of the reaction and of the way Rangers held Celtic at arm’s length, the claim is not one to laugh off. For one weekend at least, Dujon Sterling was the man his teammates were talking about, and he had earned every word.