Rangers icon Walter Smith claims it was a no-brainer for Steven Gerrard not to take his stars to Dubai this season for a winter training camp.

The Ibrox manager travelled to the UAE last term with his squad but returned to Scottish football action in disastrous form as rivals Celtic romped to the title.

Gerrard has seemingly learned his lesson this year with his decision to keep his players at home and Smith heaped praise on the boss for his choice as he believes it is the correct call. Speaking on Gers TV, Smith said: "It's a dead easy decision, that one. "After last year, after the last couple of years. They've had to go to Dubai, they come back and they're not winning games.

"If you're the manager, you just say to the boys, 'sorry lads, you're not going anywhere now'."

Meanwhile Celts have touched down in Dubai for their break and some supporters have questioned the decision of Neil Lennon and his troops for making the trip despite being in the midst of a pandemic and sitting a whopping 19 points behind their rivals at the top.

One fan moaned: "Genuinely despicable decision from Celtic to have gone to Dubai. The more I think about it the more fuming I get. Yet another senseless f*** up in a senseless f*** up of a season."

Another added: "It is utterly indefensible for the squad to swan off to Dubai in the middle of a global pandemic. The rest of us are told to stay at home while they soak up the sun by the pool. Who the hell do they think they are?"

Pictures emerged of Celtic's stars seemingly sitting by the pool in Dubai as they ready themselves for a rigorous training break.

Celtic ace David Turnbull said: "It’s definitely not a break. We will be working hard on the training ground and putting things right. It will be an intense training camp.

“Listen, the boys can take a lot of heart from the performance at the weekend and we will keep fighting and keep pushing. We need to get results and that’s our aim for the second half of the season.

“Obviously the result against Rangers was not the way we wanted things to go. We played really well and it’s about retaining the belief and kicking on. Our heads can’t go down. We’ve played them off the park for most of the game. It’s about picking ourselves up and trying to go on that all-important winning run.

“We need to win as many games as we can. We can’t look at anyone else. This team has shown it’s more than capable of going on winning runs and we need to find that level of consistency in the second half of the season.

“We need to forget about the defeat, put it to the back of our minds and move on. We will focus on ourselves, dust ourselves down.

“You have to remember there’s still a lot of football to be played in the second half of the season.

“Everyone will be giving it 100 per cent.”