Kris Commons summarised the spat between Chris Sutton and theRangers manager Mick Beale – which the former Celtic striker reckoned the Ibrox rookie boss made a ‘mountain out of a molehill’ in his reaction to Sutton questioning whether Beale would have allowed Celtic to walk a goal into their net if a similar situation to the one that happened last weekend in the Scottish Cup tie against Partick Thistle at Ibrox happened in a Glasgow Derby between Celtic and theRangers.
The dog barks but the caravan keeps moving on?? https://t.co/fFRImIid4p
— Chris Sutton (@chris_sutton73) February 17, 2023
A mountain out of a molehill Jonny… https://t.co/GMNa4QHtCW
— Chris Sutton (@chris_sutton73) February 17, 2023
And Beale’s astonishingly misjudged response allowed Sutton to pen a devastating column of his own at the weekend which would have been unpleasant reading for any bluenoses reading their Saturday morning copy of Daily Record.
My @Record_Sport column on Beale and the unnecessary soap opera. The strange episode of the thin skinned dictator who likes only the sound of his own voice and why he needs to concentrate on what really matters…your thoughts? https://t.co/fGbyV5z7G0
— Chris Sutton (@chris_sutton73) February 18, 2023
Writing in his Scottish Daily Mail column today, Kris Commons makes sense of it all and reckons that the latest Ibrox manager just showed his inexperience as a manager by getting embroiled in a spat like this.
Whether this will have any impact on the events that will take place at Hampden remains to be seen, but if Ange Postecoglou and his side win the Viaplay League Cup then you can be certain that Beale’s badly judged intervention on what was really just a non-story will be dragged up by the disappointed Ibrox support who displayed a banner at the weekend about winning just two trophies in eleven years, that’s one less that St Johnstone.
“Since replacing Giovanni van Bronckhorst in late November, Beale has brought a sense of freedom back to this Rangers (sic) team and got them playing some decent football once again. They won comfortably away at Livingston on Saturday afternoon, a notoriously awkward venue due to the plastic surface. But, as for off-field matters, it’s been more of a bumpy ride and some of his comments in the media have shown a real naivety.
“Firstly, he claimed back in January that Ange Postecoglou was a ‘lucky man’ due to the spending power available to the Celtic boss.
“I found that quite a strange thing for a Rangers (sic) manager to say. There’s nothing ‘lucky’ about being the biggest and wealthiest club in the country. For all that Celtic have the biggest budget in the league, you’ve still got to spend it wisely and their recruitment over the past 18 months has been nothing short of outstanding.
“Beale then became embroiled in another bizarre off-field spat this week with Chris Sutton, the former Celtic striker and outspoken pundit. Listen, there’s nothing wrong with publicly defending yourself and your club if you feel like a pundit has really overstepped the mark and gone too far.
“If any player or manager feels like someone has taken a pop at them, then it’s only fair that they should be entitled to a right of reply. Yet, in this instance, I don’t actually feel Sutton’s comments were all that bad when he was discussing the controversial goal Rangers (sic) allowed Partick Thistle to score in last weekend’s Scottish Cup tie.
“He wasn’t being overly provocative. Instead, he was only pondering a hypothetical scenario if Rangers (sic) would have done the same thing against Celtic. Knowing Sutton, it was tongue-in-cheek, knockabout stuff. He loves a wind-up.
“I certainly didn’t expect it to prompt Beale to give him both barrels and engage in a war of words. He duly branded Sutton as a ‘comedy act’ and ‘Chelsea’s worst ever player’. I think he let himself and his club down with those comments.
“There was no need for it. Was he trying to play up to the fans? We all know that Sutton isn’t exactly the most popular figure at Ibrox. Maybe Beale thought he could play up to the gallery and give the fans something to cheer if he was seen to have put Sutton in his place.
“But that’s not how I view it at all. In the end, I think he just showed his inexperience as a manager by getting embroiled in a spat like that. Sutton loves that sort of stuff. He’ll probably have been laughing his head off. He cast his fishing rod and ended up catching a whopper as Beale took the bait. Beale has scored an own goal with his comments about Sutton.”
Meanwhile Sutton has started his own build up to the Viaplay League Cup Final on Sunday with this tweet this morning where he suggests that he’s going to be interviewing both managers at Hampden! “Looking forward to my new reporting role and pre and post match interviews with both managers…” Sutton tweeted in response to the Viaplay promotional message about the final.
Looking forward to my new reporting role and pre and post match interviews with both managers…👇👇 https://t.co/LCBSInwjEp
— Chris Sutton (@chris_sutton73) February 20, 2023
GLASGOW DERBY UNDER THE LIGHTS ON FRIDAY 24 FEBRUARY, KICK-OFF 7PM….CELTIC V theRangers
Don’t forget there’s some Friday Night Football under the lights this coming Friday when Fran Alonso’s title challenging Celtic side take on theRangers at the Excelsior Stadium in Airdrie with the match only open to Celtic supporters. Celtic are a point ahead of theRangers at the moment and three behind Glasgow City who we play a week on Sunday, also over at Airdrie. A win against theRangers takes Celtic to the top of the league and a win the following Sunday will really put Celtic in the driving seat for our first ever SWPL1 Title. Get along and support the team, for full ticket details click below…COYGIG!
