Rangers hero makes stunning claim about Celtic’s quality

Celtic currently find themselves in a terrific position. They are leading the Premiership title race by nine points over the Rangers, who are closer to third place than first at the moment. On top of that, Ange Postecoglou’s side have booked their place in the Scottish League Cup semi-final as well, where they will come up against Kilmarnock. And they already have completed two signings for January in the form of Yuki Kobayashi and Alistair Johnston.

On the other hand, the Rangers find themselves starting into the unknown, following the appointment of Michael Beale as their manager.

It is certainly a major risk on their part, considering the fact that Beale has only 22 games worth of experience as a manager, earned during his time in the QPR hot seat. When he left, the club were 7th in the Championship table.

There is no denying the fact that there is quite a gap between the Glasgow sides as we speak. And as reported by Glasgow Live, Mark Hateley said on BBC Sportsound:

"“It’s clear to see the gulf between the two teams. That is plain and simple. There’s a step to go up but you would expect the kind of stuff that’s been said by Michael Beale. But Ange is right, you concentrate on what you’re doing.“If you are doing your job right and your team are playing how you want, there’s no complaint. You don’t look over there. You can only influence what you do on the training pitch and whenever you’re playing. Ange has done that very well.“He has his players believing on what they’e doing and they have a terrific identity. It’s completely diverse to what Rangers have right now. Now Michael Beale has come in and been tasked with giving the club on the pitch an identity.”"

Rangers hero makes stunning claim about Celtic’s quality under the management of Postecoglou

Those are comments that you would not normally expect to come from a former Rangers player but Hateley was completely honest with his assessment of the current situation between the two Glasgow giants.

Celtic are in an enviable position and the onus is on the Rangers to show that they can hang with Postecoglou’s side, who won the first Glasgow Derby of the season by a 4-0 scoreline.

Unless Beale completes a major turnaround at Ibrox following his arrival, one would expect this to be a straightforward title race.

At the same time though, Celtic must have eyes only on themselves and not on what is going at Ibrox. If they do not drop more than eight points till the end of the season, they are guaranteed to be champions.