Michael Beale’s “other team” Celtic quip didn’t go down well with journalist Hugh Keevins, who has slammed the Rangers manager for being disrespectful.
When asked about the Scottish title race this week, Beale referred to Celtic as the “other team”, with the new Rangers boss outright refusing to even mention his club’s Glasgow rivals.
It obviously went down a treat with Gers fans, but Daily Record columnist Keevins doesn’t see why Beale is getting himself involved in the drama of the rivalry.
Via his latest Daily Record column (18 December), Keevins wrote: “I didn’t think for one moment Rangers’ manager Michael Beale would come up with a suggestion of his own and refer to the club he’s going after for the league title as the “other team.”
“It’s not very respectful to a fellow member of the manager’s union, Ange Postecoglou, is it?
Beale has no need to ingratiate himself with the Rangers fans by going down a road that doesn’t need to be traveled by a man in his position.
“The storm of booing that came after the referee had blown for half-time, at which stage Hibs were 2-1 in front, was as informative as it was loud.”
The job at hand
Keevins clearly wants Beale to focus on the job at hand – improving Rangers. But in Beale’s defence, a large part of that job includes dethroning Celtic and reinstating Gers at the top of Scottish football.
The Glaswegian derby is an absolutely massive part of becoming Rangers manager, and it’s better to address it and dive head-first into it than ignore it completely.
Beale is aware of the points gap in the table and knows that Celtic will need to be unsettled if his side is going to catch up and give them a title battle this season.
That’s exactly what he was trying to do.
He knows the enemy. He knows the goal. He knows that Rangers have nothing to lose this season. If Beale has got under the skin of Celtic fans and disrespected Postecoglou – good. That’s exactly what he was going for.
Whether it works or backfires is yet to be seen, but it was a bold and admirable move by the new man in the Ibrox hot seat.
In other Rangers news, Ally McCoist makes a live admission on BT Sport about the Ryan Porteous rumors