The Rangers manager, Mick Beale has commented on the upcoming Glasgow Derby against Celtic this weekend, saying that it will be ‘intriguing’ but can’t actually bring himself to name the team his side are playing on Sunday…
So theRangers manager was left bitterly disappointed at his side’s 5-1 (7-3 aggregate) hammering at the hands of PSV last night. He watched his side crash out of the Champions League in a brutal fashion but claims that theRangers are still ready to take on Celtic, who were handed a £2.5m cash windfall as a result of being the only Scottish club making it into the Champions League this season. That means Celtic get 100% of the broadcasting pay-out from UEFA whereas last year it was shared with the 2012 formed Ibrox club. Cheers Mick.
In an attempt to level the playing field for the upcoming match, Mick comments that we aren’t in a ‘fantastic place either’ as the past few domestic games haven’t gone well for Brendan Rodgers’ side.
But when comparing an overall 7-3 aggregate thrashing to two mediocre Celtic performances, it doesn’t exactly scream confidence from their manager if that’s all he’s got. As reported by the Daily Record, speaking after theRangers’ 5-1 hammering in Eindhoven, Mick, who once again can’t bring himself to say the word ‘Celtic’, had this to say:
“We’ll dust ourselves off. Sunday is a huge game but it’s the perfect one for us to go into. The team we’re playing against aren’t coming in a fantastic place either so it’s an intriguing derby and everything is to play for.”
Although it’s fair to say that Celtic’s past two performances have been poor, Brendan Rodgers will use the Glasgow Derby to hit back and return to winning ways.
On the flip side, Mick Beale may attempt to do the same as as failing to qualify for the Champions League may have left a bitter taste in many of their fan’s mouths and there was certainly anger on social media and on their forums last night with a common theme being that Mick has lost or failed to win every meaningful game including the 2-2 draw at Ibrox in January against the team they’re playing on Sunday.
Then ‘the team we’re playing’ got the better of Mick in the League Cup final, the Glasgow Derby league match at Celtic Park and the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden. Mick did beat ‘the team we’re playing’ in the Ibrox dead rubber after ‘the team we’re playing’ had won the title and although that was wildly celebrated at the time, their support last night recognised that it was NOT a meaningful match after all.
That realisation came on the back of Mick’s latest must win match defeat, away to PSV in the Champions League play-off last night. Exactly a year before the more classy and respectful Giovanni van Bronckhorst took theRangers to Eindhoven and beat PSV 1-0 on their own turf to secure a place in the Champions League. That came after the Dutchman had led theRangers to within a penalty kick miss of actually winning a European trophy.
From that to getting hammered 5-1 by PSV is some downgrade so no wonder all Mick’s got left is to play the staunch ‘I’m not naming even naming ‘the team we’re playing’ card. Pathetic really.
COYBIG
FC Petty at it again, as long as they win on Sunday Micky will be forgiven. All they have is the hatred of Celtic and their Board and Manager know that all you need to do is to throw in a slur against ” the team we are playing” and you’ll have the fans eating out your hands. That’s the tactic guys like Green and Whyte and the lying King Dave used for years to scam them.
It seems like a remarkably stupid thing to say and is very naive. To not call us Celtic is daft and disrespectful enough but to be stupid enough to play down our chances by pointing out that we’re not doing so well at the moment is putting pressure on stupid-arse to get the result! He’s basically saying “we (Zombies) should win, because the team we’re playing are doing poorly”, so he’s putting pressure on himself and his team. The guy needs media training or maybe he can’t help himself?
Green and Whyte ! Got to say its beautifully ironic that Green and Whyte used and abused the staunchness of the sevvies. You couldn’t make that up.