Celtic continue to lead the Premiership title race by nine points, with just 14 league games left to be played this season. With every win, they get closer to retaining their Scottish crown. At the same time though, one cannot deny that the Rangers have improved since the appointment of Michael Beale as manager.
The Ibrox side had struggled badly in the first half of the season, under the management of Giovanni van Bronckhorst, who was shown the exit door during the World Cup break and was replaced by Beale.
While the results have been good for Beale, he has caused some controversy as well, with some of his recent comments. Of course, the most notable was the one where he labelled Ange Postecoglou as a ‘lucky man’.
Unsurprisingly, Celtic fans did not take it too well. And it looks like Chris Sutton was not impressed either. He wrote in his column in the Daily Record about the matter:
"Rangers manager Michael Beale opined that Postecoglou was a lucky man due to the spending power at his disposal. Livingston boss David Martindale spoke at the start of this week about the massive gulf in finances which gives Celtic the edge. Martindale is right. Postecoglou does have a pound for every penny he and others have got.Beale’s also right. He’s right that the Aussie is lucky to work for a club that is so well run and has a sharp business model to get their finances in top order. That provides for a manager who then signs gems to generate profit in sales. And gets into the Champions League to gather even more dough.But, whether that lucky jibe from Beale was an attempt to belittle Postecoglou’s achievements as a coach or rattle him and Celtic, it smacked of a real lack of class. Within the game, I think many managers will have raised eyebrows at Beale’s lack of self awareness, especially after the way he left QPR.And, for me, there’s also just something about the way he talks about the last Rangers title triumph, almost a perception that he was front and centre of that success. Wasn’t Steven Gerrard the actual manager?"
Beale slammed by Celtic hero for controversial claim
It is safe to say that the comments have not seemed to have any effect on Celtic’s performances and results at all, as they have continued to march towards a second straight league title and will have other silverware in their sights as well.
While they lead the league title race by nine points, they are in the final of the Scottish League Cup as well, where they will face the Rangers at Hampden Park.
Things could get interesting in that game for sure. And hopefully, the Bhoys will come out on top and retain the Scottish League Cup as well.
Coming to Beale, it will be interesting to see how he does in the long run at Ibrox. It is worth remembering that Van Bronckhorst had done a pretty good job last season as well, taking them to the Europa League final and winning the Scottish Cup. But things went off track this time around.