Game on in trophy race, insists Beale

NEW Rangers manager Michael Beale insists the current Ibrox squad is strong enough to take on Celtic and make it ‘game on’ in the battle for trophies.

Appointed as Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s successor last week, Beale has taken over a team nine points adrift in the Premiership title race.

Although there will be funds available to strengthen in the January transfer window, Beale also expects his options to improve significantly as the club’s crippling injury list eases.

The former QPR head coach hopes to welcome back important first-team players such as Connor Goldson and

Kemar Roofe soon after the league campaign resumes later this month, while others such as Ianis Hagi and Tom Lawrence are also on the road to recovery.

Asked if he would not rest until Rangers are back on top, he responded: ‘I don’t think anyone (here) will. And if I didn’t think we could do it with this group of players, I wouldn’t have come back. And I mean everybody that’s available in our squad.

‘Write our squad down and put it next to our biggest rivals — okay then, game on. I’m watching the World Cup and there are teams who are committed, together and beating sides outside their means.

‘In terms of resources, their (Celtic’s) spending power has been slightly bigger than ours. We’re not the haves. In that battle, we’re slightly the have-nots. But game on, let’s go.

‘We need everyone fit and together. At times, we’ll recruit. But the small wins for me at the moment are: “Are the players happy, do they know what they’re doing and are they training well?”.

‘If I can’t get those three things right, then we’re knackered.’

Although Beale believes he can get closer to Celtic, he is an admirer of the job Ange Postecoglou has done across the city.

The pair crossed paths shortly before Beale joined Steven Gerrard in flitting to Aston Villa in November 2021, Rangers winning the first derby of that season by a 1-0 margin at Ibrox.

Postecoglou’s rebuild was still in its infancy then and Beale acknowledges that Rangers now face a much stronger rival than the one they beat to the title in Gerrard’s third season in charge.

‘They have a lot more rhythm now than then,’ he said. ‘It’s fair to say we were the bosses around here then. Let’s see.

‘I’m a career coach, so I have a lot of respect for the coach of that club. He has done a very good job so far.

‘He has followed the model for all successful Old Firm managers — whether that’s Brendan Rodgers, Steven Gerrard or Walter Smith.

‘Whoever has been successful here, they’ve had a vision, they’ve recruited towards it, then worked towards it every day.

‘They (Celtic) have momentum, haven’t they? I think Ange talks hugely positively. He came in, he rode the wave of where we were and just got down to his work.

‘He has seen the fruits of his labour. I have got to go on that journey and I want that journey to be very short.

‘My mind right now is not about the table, it’s about can this team get to where I want them to be as quickly as possible and can we start winning games?

‘I’ve got to start moving towards the identity we want to move in. I think if everyone is fit and available — you start talking about Hagi, Lawrence, Roofe, Sakala, Morelos, Kent, Wright, Tillman, Colak — there’s enough in the building.

‘We’ve just got to get them on the pitch playing together with a smile on their face and expecting nothing, but grabbing and taking everything.

‘When we first came, I remember people saying it was going to cost £100million. Well it didn’t. It did cost some money and a lot of hard work in Europe to refinance things.

‘It also cost a lot of coaching and time and good recruitment.’