Celtic must be very confident from where things stand at the moment. The club are leading the Premiership by nine points, are in the Scottish League Cup semi-final, have already signed Yuki Kobayashi and are expected to get a deal done for Alistair Johnston soon as well, with Canada’s World Cup campaign now over.
On the other hand, the Rangers find themselves in a very different situation and are pretty much staring into the unknown, having shown Giovanni van Bronckhorst the exit door and replaced him with the inexperienced Mick Beale.
Yes, Beale did earn himself a big reputation during his time as a coach but management is a whole different ball game and the fact of the matter is that he has sat on the hot seat for only 22 games till now, and guided his team to victory in only nine of them. That is not a spectacular record, although QPR were a respectable 7th in the Championship when he did leave for Ibrox.
Celtic have been told that they should be worried about the Rangers’ appointment of Beale though. As reported by Football Insider, Noel Whelan said about the matter:
"“I would say the Championship is more difficult than the Scottish Premiership so I think he is proven.“Celtic and Rangers are expected to finish one and two and win the cups. There is not as much pressure on at Rangers in my opinion.“They should be in the Champions League every season, the only rivalry they have is Celtic. They are the two giants of Scottish football.“Beale will at least get them second this season. He is walking into a club where he might not be the big name but his record speaks for itself.“From what I have seen and heard, I think Celtic should be worried.”"
Celtic told to be worried about the Rangers’ move for Beale
It goes without saying that Beale is very highly rated but at this point of time, it would be a stretch to say that Celtic should be worried about what he will be bringing to Ibrox when the Hoops have a manager who has won a league in three different continents till now.
But at the same time, one cannot make the mistake of completely ruling out Beale as someone who can pose a problem to Celtic. At the end of the day, he did have a big reputation as a coach and knows Scottish football well.
Let’s see how things go from here for the Rangers but at the moment, one has to consider Celtic as heavy favourites for the title.