Some of Michael Beale’s recent comments have not gone down well with the Celtic fans and understandably so. The new Rangers manager has talked about the Hoops’ transfer activity under the management of Ange Postecoglou. The fact of the matter is that the club are leading the title race by nine points though.
Now, the Rangers have improved themselves following the arrival of Beale and while their performances remain shaky, they are stringing together wins once again. And yet, they have not been able to decrease the gap by even a single point till now.
Yes, Celtic have continued to strengthen their squad over the last four transfer windows, but then, there have been many who have headed out in the opposite direction as well.
And Alan Hutton appeared to have an interesting take on the matter as well. As reported by Football Insider, he said regarding Beale and some of his recent comments:
"“I think it is just a little bit of mind games.“Celtic are nine points in front, it seems like everybody they bring in hits the ground running and does really well.“Maybe a case of that or maybe it is a little cry to the board to say Celtic are strengthening, they are in a place of power at the moment and if we want to get to that level then we need to spend.“It could be a little bit of both of those things.”"
Interesting claim made about Beale’s comments about Celtic
Could Beale be trying to get the Rangers board to bring in more players in order to catch up with Celtic?
Celtic have already completed four signings in this window, by bringing in Tomoki Iwata, Alistair Johnston, Yuki Kobayashi and Oh Hyeon-gyu. In contrast, the Rangers have signed only one player till now in the form of Todd Cantwell.
While the Rangers’ results might have improved in recent times, they are not flying by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, they have won only two games by a margin of more than one goal under the management of Beale.
As for the ‘mind games’, the comments do not seem to have had any effect on Celtic’s results, as they have continued to march on towards the title.
Of course, there is still some way to go in the Premiership title race and the players cannot make the mistake of taking anything for granted. It does not matter what happens at Ibrox. As long as they do not drop more than eight points over the next 16 league games, they are guaranteed to be crowned champions of Scotland once again.