Michael Beale's 'mind games' of comparing his squad's investment to rivals Celtic could be viewed as a nudge to the Rangers board.
That is the view of former Ibrox defender Alan Hutton who believes the Light Blues boss was always going to stir the spot when his side are chasing the Scottish champions. Nine points is the difference on the park but off the field Ange Postecoglou has made four January recruits, topping off the arrivals of Alistair Johnston, Yuki Kobayashi and Tomoki Iwata with the newest signing in Oh Hyeon-Gyu.
Meanwhile Beale has recruited Todd Cantwell from Norwich City on a long-term deal and is eyeing the likes of midfielder Nicolas Raskin and forward Morgan Whittaker but no deals have been struck. The Ibrox gaffer previously claimed Celtic had 'spent a lot of money' and that his counterpart Postecoglou was a 'lucky man'.
Hutton revealed his theory on Beale's comments and says they are commonplace in football when chasing down a rival team. He told Football Insider: “ I think it is just a little bit of mind games. Celtic are nine points in front, it seems like everybody they bring in hits the ground running and does really well.
“Maybe a case of that or maybe it is a little cry to the board to say Celtic are strengthening, they are in a place of power at the moment and if we want to get to that level then we need to spend.
“It could be a little bit of both of those things. I understand it, it always goes on in football especially when you are chasing Celtic down. I get what he is saying but I understand why Celtic are probably getting a bit annoyed with it.“
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