Former Celtic manager Neil Lennon knows from personal experience that it’s possible for new Rangers boss Michael Beale to overturn the champions’ nine-point and 17-goal advantage lead over them as he prepares make his debut in the Ibrox dug-out against Hibs tomorrow night.
Back in November 2011 Lennon’s Hoops team trailed Ally McCoist’s champions by FIFTEEN points and 13 goals and the Irishman admitted he feared he might receive his P45.
Yet by the end of December, Celtic had edged their way in front of their rivals and stayed there for the rest of the season.
That proves it can be done but Lennon can’t see his successor, Ange Postecoglou, overseeing a similar meltdown.
“Michael will feel that the gap isn’t insurmountable and there are other examples apart from that one – down south Kevin Keegan and Alex Ferguson both blew bigger leads than Celtic have to be pipped at the finish line,” he pointed out.
“You can draw on your own experience as well as other people’s when it comes to gaps like that being overturned and try to use that to your own experience.
“The problem he has is that Celtic don’t look as though they’re going to lose too many matches and never mind Celtic - Rangers have been dropping points to Hibs, Livingston, St Johnstone and St Mirren and that has to stop.
“Rangers have left themselves with no room for error because, domestically, Celtic have been imperious. They lost at St Mirren but have won every other game and some of the football they’ve been playing has been fantastic.
“Ange’s signings have been excellent. You just need to see how well they’ve done at the World Cup - Josip Juranovic was Man of the Match against Brazil and Daizen Maeda, Aaron Mooy and Cameron Carter-Vickers were also terrific.
“This Celtic team is great to watch. They have vibrancy and speed and they play with real intensity and there’s a constant ambition to score goals whenever they have the ball and whatever the scoreline may be and that all comes from the manager.
“Which is why I don’t think Michael will emulate what we did 11 seasons ago.”
Beale was in charge for Saturday’s friendly win over Bayer Leverkusen but will have a better idea of the task in hand after Hibs visit Ibrox.
“Rangers have been a mixed bag this season so it will be interesting to see how Michael gets on,” said Lennon.
“He’s clearly a good coach but being a good coach and being a good manager are two totally different things. If he doesn’t get off to a good start he’ll soon feel that hot breath on his neck and we’ll see if he can handle that.
“Effectively, he needs to win all his games up until they play Celtic on January 2 and then, if he’s going to make an impact, he really needs to win that and probably the two remaining ones as well.
“That’ll be difficult because Celtic have been rampant.”
Lennon knows how Beale will be feeling going into the festive fixtures after looking down and out in only his second season in charge.
“We should’ve won the league when I replaced Tony Mowbray but we lost a midweek game at Inverness with just 11 days of the campaign left and Rangers pipped us by a point, although we won the Scottish Cup.
“Then we started the next season poorly and I couldn’t put my finger on why that was. There was a game at Kilmarnock where we were 3-0 down at half-time and I told the players their display was unacceptable.
“I also said to them that if they wanted to see me walk through the door on Monday morning then they had to turn the situation around and they did – we got a 3-3 draw and that kick-started everything.
“For one thing, we were the early kick-off that day and later that afternoon Rangers were held 1-1 at home by St Mirren, which gave us a lift.
“It was a young team but we had quality players like Fraser Forster, Scott Brown, Joe Ledley, Gary Hooper and James Forrest was just breaking through.
“We then went on an unbeaten run off 22 games – winning 19 of them – and Joe Ledley scored the only goal of the game against Rangers at Parkhead on December 28 to put us top of the table for the first time.
“There were a lot of things going on at Ibrox, there was unrest there and we took advantage of that.
“The derby win was massive psychologically for us, just as January 2 will be for this Rangers team because victory is essential for them.
“However, I can’t see Celtic slipping up, not the way Ange drives them. Even if they have injuries and suspensions they have good depth in their squad and should be able to cope if they’re missing a few players.
“I won’t say it’s impossible for Rangers to overtake them but winning those three remaining derbies is a huge task.”
