Celtic’s 2-0 win over Kilmarnock meant that they went 12 points ahead of the Rangers in the title race and the pressure was on Michael Beale’s side to come out with a win away from Dundee United. They managed to do that, with two goals in the second half proving to be the difference, as the gap remains 9 points, after both Glasgow giants have played 21 league games each.
Some of Beale’s recent comments did not go down well with the Celtic fans though, as he commented on the Hoops’ heavy investment on transfers.
It seems that the Rangers manager has not backed away from those claims though and has only gone on to double down on them.
As reported by Football Scotland, when asked about the reaction to his comments about Celtic’s ability to spend money and if it was to manage expectations over what the Rangers could spend, Beale told BBC:
"“No, it’s not managing expectations – it’s just stating a fact.“They’ve spent a lot of money and they have the power to do that.”"
Beale makes controversial Celtic claim again
Yes, Celtic’s squad has undergone an overhaul since the arrival of Ange Postecoglou as manager, but that was always going to be the case.
Following the disastrous 2020/21 campaign, several loan players with first-team roles departed. Scott Brown’s run as the long-time captain of Celtic also came to an end. Odsonne Edouard and Kris Ajer got big money moves to the Premier League, and Ryan Christie headed for Bournemouth as well.
Thus, the squad was in big need of reinforcements and despite signing several players in the summer, they struggled with depth issues throughout the first half of the season and were only better in that regard after adding some more players in January of 2022.
The most important thing is that Celtic have made those signings while balancing the books throughout that period of time. That’s not an easy task. The Ibrox fans will know better than most.