George Overhill

Sun 27 November 2022 8:10, UK

Rangers can still beat Celtic to the Scottish Premiership title this season with Michael Beale in as manager, according to Neil McCann.

The former QPR boss is now set to be announced as the new man in charge at Ibrox, taking over from Giovanni van Bronckhorst who left with the Gers nine points behind their Glasgow rivals in the table and didn’t manage a league win in the Old Firm derby.

But McCann believes there is still enough talent in the squad for the managerial change to be enough to spark a major revival, as long as Beale doesn’t lose any ground before the Hoops’ visit on 2 January.

The ex-Ibrox winger told BBC Sportsound on Saturday (26 November), as per Football Scotland: “You’ve got to think about how quickly things can change.

“You just don’t know how someone is going to come back from a break and what the change in their mindset is going to be. I think the change in manager; the board have looked at it and said we need to do something.”

“There is three Old Firm games to go, but he has to win Hibs at home, Aberdeen away, Ross County away and Motherwell at home and get in on the same points (gap with Celtic) or better.

“Are you telling me if it’s six points going into the rest or the season, then that isn’t achievable? It’s a mindset thing. That group of players have to be switched back on.

“I think if he (Michael Beale) gets players back fit, and players playing well, you can start to reel points back in on Celtic. I think if Mick Beale takes this job is because he thinks he can do something with that squad.

“There could be people leaving Ange Postecoglou’s team in January, [Josip] Juranovic might go. I would concede if he doesn’t get to the Celtic game with points intact it’s over, but if he does it’s a different ball game.”

Turnaround

There was certainly a psychological issue developing under Van Bronckhorst, with even the likes of John Lundstram visibly affected in the final weeks of the Dutchman’s reign.

And the fact that the only victory over Celtic in the now-former manager’s time came in extra-time of the cup semi-final last year, admittedly on the way to lifting the trophy, can’t have been a major mental boost for the players to attempt to claw back the gap.

It would be a massive achievement for Beale to successfully do that, and the odds are undoubtedly against him, but his previous spell at the club as assistant to Steven Gerrard gave him experience latterly of triumphing in the derby.

If the connection with the squad and his much vaunted training methods are enough to get the current players to lift their performances sufficiently to win the four December fixtures then the massive clash in the new year would gain major significance.

But that is a huge ‘if’, and there is a lot that the former assistant has to get on top of as the main man before that point.

But McCann’s optimism will be shared by plenty of the fanbase unless or until performances fail to match up to the reputation.

Beale started at Loftus Road like a house on fire, but recently the form fell off the cliff, so Ross Wilson will be desperate to see his man perform more like the start of the season than the last few weeks back in Scotland.

In other Rangers news, there was not a consensus to go straight for Beale, with Sean Dyche among the names that some senior figures wanted to investigate further.