The rebuild Michael Beale is conducting at Ibrox this summer is much SMALLER but also much HARDER than the one Ange Postecoglou put together at Parkhead two years ago.
Postecoglou arrived at Celtic in the summer of 2021 with the club in turmoil. They’d finished 25 points behind Rangers the previous season and NINE first-team players were heading for the exit, including skipper Scott Brown, top scorer Odsonne Edouard, key midfielders Ryan Christie and Olivier Ntcham and their best defender, Kristoffer Ajer. By comparison, Beale has released 41-year-old ‘keeper Allan McGregor, crocked defender Filip Helander, veteran midfielder Scott Arfield plus £7m winger Ryan Kent and Alfredo Morelos, their top European goalscorer. However, as Sky pundit – and former Celtic double winner – Andy Walker points out, Postecoglou still had more advantages on his way to becoming a Premiership-winning Manager of the Year at the first attempt.
“What you have to remember is that Celtic had trailed well behind Rangers while attempting to win that record ten in a row just weeks before Ange arrived,” he claimed. “Obviously, with the size of the turnover he had to organise plus the fact he faced a very settled Rangers side under Steven Gerrard, the challenge in front of him was a steep one. What people tend to forget, though, is that Celtic managed to pull in almost £35.5m from the sales of Edouard, Ajer, Christie, Patryk Klimala, Vikoun Bayo and Marian Shved.
“That was enough to pay the transfer fees of Kyogo Furuhashi (£4.6m), Carl Starfelt (£4m), Liel Abada (£3.4m), Josip Juranovic (£2.75m), Georgios Giakoumakis (£2.25m), Matt O’Riley (£1.7m), Reo Hatate (£1.4m), Joe Hart (£1m) and Yosuke Ideguchi (£650,000). In fact, those sales were enough to cover the permanent transfers of loan signings Jota (£6.5m) and Cameron Carter-Vickers (£6m) the following summer.
“Ange did a great job with his recruitment. He clearly has an eye for players who will fit into his style and into this league but, clearly, having that war chest helped.
“Michael Beale doesn’t have that advantage. He claimed that Ange was “lucky” to have that cash at his disposal but luck had nothing to do with it.
“Unlike Rangers, Celtic are a well-run club who know how to work the transfer market to their advantage. With the exception of Calvin Bassey being sold to Ajax for £20m, Rangers haven’t turned a serious profit on a signing for a long time whereas Celtic have excelled at getting more bang for their buck.
“Rangers have been guilty of being too loyal to players for too long now. Look at Morelos and Kent, two players they had high hopes of raking in handsome fees for.
“Yet when they refused to extend their contracts last summer, they allowed the pair of them to run them down rather than showing them the door and cutting their losses. Celtic wouldn’t do that.
"If they received a big offer for Hatate, say, they’d take the profit and move on, confident that they could replace him with someone else. Look at Juranovic. After he reached the World Cup semi-finals with Croatia, they sold him to Union Berlin for £8m and paid Montreal £3m for Alastair Johnston, who actually improved the team. Whether Ange stays next season or whether he goes to Tottenham, Celtic have all the advantages financially, with their bigger stadium and stronger commercial operation.”
The odds appear to be stacked against Beale, then, but Walker isn’t prepared to write off his chances of taking the title back to Govan. “At the moment you can hardly make a case for Rangers becoming champions again but value for money counts for everything now,” he insisted.
“Michael signed Todd Cantwell and Nicolas Raskin during the January window and they look like astute signings. I remember watching Cantwell run the show against good teams for Norwich before he stopped doing it and dropped off the radar but he seems to be enjoying being at a big club.
“He’s since brought in Kieran Dowell and Dujon Sterling, whom we don’t know much about, plus Jack Butland looks likely to arrive as well. Rangers need to get every signing right because, having less money than Celtic, they can’t afford any kind of waste.
“But it’s happened before. Wim Jansen stopped Rangers doing the ten and Gerrard prevented Celtic from doing it even though they spent more that season.
“Plus they’ve found enough bargains recently – Bassey, Joe Aribo, Glen Kamara – to make you think they might be able to do it again. Celtic will still be favourites but you can’t write Rangers off.”
