Michael Beale says his Rangers squad stands up next to champions Celtic as he declared 'game on' in the title race.
The new Light Blues boss has made confident statements in his first week at Ibrox, as he was named successor to Giovanni Van Bronckhorst following poor domestic and European form under the Dutchman's watch. Now Beale must pick up the pieces of an under-performing Rangers, who have the daunting task of catching a seemingly rampant Celtic side sitting nine points clear of their rivals.
The Englishman has the World Cup break to hone in on key issues at Ibrox, with a crunch derby clash coming on home soil on January 2nd. But Beale believes man-for-man the two Glasgow squads are matched and says his side won't rest until they get back to a standard to match the Hoops.
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Asked if his squad won't rest until they win the title, he said: “I don’t think anyone will. And if I didn’t think we could do it with this group of players, I wouldn’t have come back. By that, I mean everybody that’s available in our squad. If you write our squad down and put it next to our biggest rivals’ - OK then, it’s game on. Game on.
“I’m watching the World Cup right now and there are teams who are committed, together and beating sides outside their means. So if you put our two squads together? Game on.
“In terms of resources, their spending power has been slightly bigger than ours. But it’s game on. We’re not the have’s right now. In that particular battle, we’re the have-nots, slightly. So game on.
"Let’s go, but we need everyone fit and together. The small wins for me at the moment will be around: ‘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, we’re knackered.”
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