Everything about Rangers at the moment revolves around the concept of jam tomorrow.
But when they get to Pittodrie this afternoon it will be, more immediately, about bread and butter today. The league game against Aberdeen and next Sunday’s Scottish Cup, semi-final against Celtic at Hampden have the ability to define the club’s season – and not in a good way, unless they’re careful. It’s not about things being better when manager Michael Beale has had the benefit of another transfer window, as one suggestion goes.
The gulf between Rangers and Celtic is, in terms of performances if not points, not as great as some people think it is – another frequently expressed theory that is open to debate. Or else there’s the one about Beale slowly but surely figuring out the way to beat Celtic rival Ange Postecoglou and it only being a matter of time before that happens. All of the above form the basis of the argument for saying Beale will soon have the measure of the team across the road on the other side of the city.
But, to be fair to the Ibrox boss, he has greater self-awareness and that’s a good start to make in the interests of avoiding the pitfalls of presumption. I was listening to the manager chat with Ally McCoist on the radio on Wednesday morning when he said something that has led me to that conclusion.
Beale was referencing his work in assembling a new cast of players and introduced a clause in one sentence that said: “Next season, hopefully under myself.”
It was that kind of sharp intake of breath moment that prompts the need for self-interpretation. My take on it was that the man in charge at Ibrox has, in the midst of a season strewn with managerial casualties, read the room and concluded his job isn’t sacrosanct or immune from review by his employers just because of who and where he is.
He knows he needs to determine his own future. Starting today. Beale must put down a marker, preferably two, where his club’s greatest rivals are concerned between now and the end of the season in league and cup.
And Pittodrie, where Aberdeen have not beaten Rangers since September 2016, is the place that sets the tone for the first of the two outstanding derbies featuring the Old Firm.
I like to keep things simple and not insult my own intelligence. Celtic are two-in-a-row champions on the understanding they will not lose all five matches after the split by the kind of exotic margins that concoct any other scenario.
That’s a non-starter in this life or the next. Now it’s about the size of the gap between them and Rangers. It was nine points when Beale succeeded Gio van Bronckhorst in November but it’s wider than that now. Any worsening of the situation by the season’s end reflects badly on the manager.
Rangers’ season could be over by Sunday in the penultimate round of a competition that is actually the cup final itself. Like I say, I see no need to insult my own intelligence. Falkirk or Inverness Caley Thistle have no chance against whichever Old Firm side meets them at the national stadium. The age of miracles has passed.
Beale has to do with earthly matters. He has to prove he doesn’t need Postecoglou to be lured away to another country before he can be successful.
He has to prove he can be the top man in his own right, not in another’s absence. Or else. Aberdeen are going into the game with a sense of grievance. They have been accused of a manipulation of the rules relating to appealing red cards. The club believe themselves victims of a violation of trust regarding the SFA’s practices in the implementation of those rules. Grievance versus necessity suggests a powerful contest.
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