Walking around Aikenhead Road three hours before kick-off at Hampden was the epitome of optimism.
He had a desperate look on his face and above his head was an old piece of cardboard with a plaintive cry written on it: “Any spare tickets?”
Adam Idah is in doubt for his first Old Firm Scottish Cup final since turning one.
Dressed in neutrals — not that he would have narrowed his chances by wearing green or blue — you’d imagine he’d still be on the outside when the game began with smoke bombs on one side and fireworks on the other.
In a clash between Glasgow’s powerhouses, bottom-placed Rangers were leading by a point with a minute to go after having bombarded Celtic all day.
Their midfield trio of Mohamed Diomande, Nicolas Raskin and Dujon Sterling were up against the men who have dominated the team all season.
Diomande was superb and Sterling was so busy all over the pitch that you wondered how many players were actually on it.
And then the knockout punch, so to speak, came out of the blue.
An unusual lapse in concentration allowed the opposition to get through, putting the goalkeeper in danger and forcing a shot from Jack Butland, who has been a signature player for the team since the summer, to be deflected.
Celtic have done it again. Another trophy. They have now won 19 of their last 24 domestic titles.
They have beaten their city rivals four times in five games this season – all by a single point – but that doesn’t matter – Brendan Rodgers has two wins at the end of a very tough season.
This is a battle for Celtic and maybe that makes it all the more pleasing.
That would have been a blow to Rangers, who came out red hot and fought hard all day.
They managed to thwart all of Celtic’s main threats and still lost, they were strong in midfield and tenacious defensively and still lost.
Rodgers will be delighted with the double win and will use it as a stepping stone to the changes he wants to make in the summer and which he has been hoping to implement over the past two transfer windows.
Quality over quantity is his motto and he now has the maximum power to get more of what he wants before a new big show arrives in the blink of an eye.
I have to attend the party, but I also have work to do.
He needs a new goalkeeper – Joe Hart is set to retire in style at Hampden – and a left-back to keep Greg Taylor under pressure.
They’ll probably also need to replace Matt O’Reilly.
O’Reilly may not have had an impact in the final, but he was superb for Rodgers – 19 goals and 18 assists are impressive numbers. Would Atletico Madrid sign him again? It would be no surprise.
A decision must be made about Ida, who has triumphed and is now a legendary hero.
His arrival in January was met with a disappointing response from Celtic fans but he has been a strong player, scoring consistently in his limited game time and now becoming a cup final hero.
He is 23 years old and the transfer fee is reported to be £6 million if his parent club Norwich City are willing to play.
Coming into the final, he had the best goals per shot ratio in the Premiership and it was his second goal in three Old Firm games.
At his current form, he has the advantage over Furuhashi Kyogo in terms of threat and age.
What’s next for him? Listening to Ida speak after the game, it sounds like he wants to stay where he is. This is a big decision for Celtic now.
These are good problems for Rodgers to have.
He can make the decision with confidence, knowing that huge Champions League profits – likely more than £40 million – will come to the club.
There is undoubtedly ambition stirred within the Celtic board – not financial recklessness or reckless gambling, but a loosening of the purse strings that reflects the club’s desire to win more European competitions as well as domestic titles.
Celtic have a lot of players at their disposal and in an ideal world there would be opportunities.
Alexandro Bernabei, Sead Haksavanovic, Mikey Johnston, Oh Hyun-gyu, Marco Tiliotto and, amazingly, James McCarthy are all still Celtic players.
There are other players on the team who are earning wages in bit parts or no roles, and moving some of them would add more cash to the coffers and give Rodgers more freedom to add top-tier players to his roster. Whoever is given the job will need to stay busy.
Rodgers’ first-choice starting eleven remains primarily Ange Postecoglou’s side.
He will be hoping to put his own stamp on the team after failures in the past two transfer windows and a clever tweak could make it hard for Rangers to get close to them next season.
“Clement has some important summer work to do.”
Clement’s side could hardly have troubled Celtic at Hampden.
They took the lead with a goal, but the goal was called off after a totally unnecessary push by Raskin on Hart.
If Ruskin had just stood his ground, Hart would not have gotten to the ball and the goal would have been good. For Rangers fans, that’s a painful truth.
Rangers have surprised many of us by being without Connor Goldson or John Sutter and Borna Barisic is not with the squad pending a possible departure, meaning they are now without three of Clement’s regular back four.
Leon Balogun, 35, was impressive in defence despite only just returning from injury, Ben Davies was strong in his fourth appearance since December and Ridvan Yilmaz played at left-back despite only playing just over two hours in two months.
They all played hard but so did the midfielders in front of them, or most of them.
The final goal was brutal, as their performance was superb but it ended with another kick to the solar plexus.
Clement has a ton of work to do, and while Rodgers simply needs to find the right talent, Clement needs the courage of his new team.
Goldson, James Tavernier, Barisic, Kemar Roofe and John Lundstram could all depart, losing a lot of experience but also freeing up a healthy wage bill for a rebuild.
Fabio Silva will go back to England. What about Todd Cantwell? At one point he was pulling and dragging himself around the pitch and the manager tried to push him off. Maybe he should keep pushing.
Clement still has Sam Lammers, Jose Cifuentes and Ianis Hagi, all out on loan. Would Clement want any of them? It’s hard to tell.
He will want to keep hold of Abdallah Sima, the forward could cost £6m from Brighton but he has been a consistent performer and is exactly the type of player they need.
At the moment the Rangers have too many unreliable players and too many mediocre players.
The manager has already signed 20-year-old Brazilian Jephte at left-back, but that’s just the beginning.
The performances of Diomande and Sterling will give him great encouragement, but we need more operators like them.
Clement will need to rest up a bit after this, then get back on his feet and get back to the tough work of chasing a championship team that knows how to get the job done.
