Celtic are on a different planet ... they will ask questions that Beale’s team cannot answer

BEFORE the ink has even dried on their contract, life as an Old Firm boss can often hit managers with a major reality check. When he took charge of Celtic in the summer of 2016, Brendan Rodgers lost his first game in charge with a calamitous 1-0 defeat to a pub team from Gibraltar.

In the space of just three days, Ange Postecoglou oversaw defeats to Midtjylland and Hearts when he arrived at Parkhead in the summer of 2021.

Indeed, Celtic lost three of their opening six league games under the Australian, before clicking into gear and romping to last season’s league title.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst sat in the stands at Hampden in November 2021 and watched his new Rangers team lose 3-1 to Hibernian in a League Cup semi-final.

Again, another eye-opener — and, this time, before he had even taken charge of the team properly.

Michael Beale has yet to encounter that sort of speed bump. But, still in the infancy of his Ibrox tenure, I’ve seen enough to suggest it’s definitely in the post.

It looked like it might well arrive against Aberdeen at Pittodrie just a couple of weeks ago, only for the Dons to implode in the final couple of minutes.

But, defensively, I still believe there are major question marks around this Rangers team. They don’t convince me at all.

Aberdeen and Hibs both took two goals off them — and it should have been more. If Celtic hit top gear, they could run riot at Ibrox this afternoon.

Yes, I know Rangers have had clean sheets in their last two games. But, with all due respect, those came against Ross County and Motherwell.

Celtic are playing football on a different planet to those sort of teams and will ask questions of Rangers which I don’t believe Beale’s side are capable of answering.

Listen, Beale will have come into this with his eyes wide open. He will be fully aware of the size of the rebuild that is facing him at Ibrox. But, if anyone has any doubt, ask yourself one simple question: How many current Rangers players would get into the Celtic team?

You would have to say none. I don’t think you can make a conclusive case for any of them.

At the very most, there’s maybe a couple of 50-50s.

Maybe you’d take Connor Goldson ahead of Carl Starfelt, but Goldson has been miles off it since Rangers won the league.

Likewise, you could maybe make a case for Borna Barisic ahead of Greg Taylor at left-back. Even that feels like a bit of a stretch.

Barisic has a habit of being posted missing in these Old Firm games, while Taylor has been one of the most improved players in the country over the past year or so.

Other than that, there’s no one in this Rangers squad who would get anywhere near the Celtic team.

If you were picking a combined XI, the full midfield and forward line would be wearing green and white.

Ryan Kent ahead of Jota? Don’t make me laugh. I’ve said it before this season — Jota is the player Ryan Kent dreams of being.

Kent is a show pony who too often flatters to deceive. His end product is woeful for a player who cost Rangers £7million.

To be honest, Celtic could probably field two entirely different midfields who would still be better than Rangers’ first-choice trio.

Rangers are so slow and pedestrian in the middle of the park. They lack ideas and creativity — and that’s where I expect Celtic to expose them this afternoon.

Beale has an ageing team on his hands and Celtic have all the firepower to turn this into a major reality check for the new Rangers boss this afternoon.

This could be the day when the gulf between these teams becomes abundantly clear for Beale.

If Celtic play their best stuff, they’ll cruise to victory.

It’s up to them to play the game on their own terms. If they do that, Rangers simply don’t have the quality to get anywhere near them.

Celtic travel to Ibrox with a healthy lead at the top of the table. Normally in that scenario, they would be more than happy to settle for a draw.

But I don’t think Postecoglou would ever entertain the idea of playing for a point. There’s a weakness and fragility to this Rangers side, so Celtic will go on the attack.

It’s Rangers who go into this knowing it’s win or bust. If they lose to their rivals today, then the title race will be over in the first week of the new year.

The second half of the season would turn into a procession, with Celtic chasing various records and the prospect of another Treble.

One record which won’t escape their attention is the possibility of surpassing the points total set by Rodgers’ Invincibles in 2017.

Celtic amassed 106 points that year from their 38 games, winning 34 and drawing four. They are at the halfway stage of this season and have 54 points from their 19 games.

So victory at Ibrox this afternoon would tee up a second half of the season where, if they win all of their games, they would pass the points total of the Invincibles.

With 61 goals scored so far, they are also on track to obliterate the number of goals scored (106) by the class of 2017.

With such a lack of competition in terms of the title race, it’s little things like that which can motivate players, even when it seems like there’s nothing much left to play for.

I always felt that Old Firm games went one of two ways.

You either wanted to soak it up and celebrate. Or, if you lost, you wanted to switch off your phone and lock yourself away in a dark room for the next few days.

One thing’s for sure. Defeat this afternoon would certainly switch off the lights on Rangers’ faint title hopes.