Former Rangers manager Alex McLeish believes there's similarities to what Michael Beale has inherited at Ibrox and how his first season in Govan panned out as the Londoner eyes his first piece of silverware.
Beale replaced Giovanni van Bronckhorst at the end of November, with the Light Blues already playing second fiddle to Celtic in the Scottish Premiership. And despite just two league defeats since, they now find themselves 13 points behind the Hoops and could go the campaign trophy-less if they fail to win against their city rivals at Hampden in today's Scottish Cup semi-final. Meanwhile, Ange Postecoglou's side are on the brink of a domestic Treble. McLeish replaced the outgoing Dick Advocaat in 2001 and was faced with a similar challenge as Celtic held the supremacy but soon turned it around to dominate the forthcoming years.
"There's a few that I've already forgotten," joked McLeish on Viaplay Sports. "We've had great times at Ibrox and I had a great team the first couple of seasons and then it was that recruitment thing, it didn't quite work out. But the next season we went again and we recruited well. Then of course there was the helicopter Sunday but the season when I joined, Celtic were rampant in the league; they had a big points difference to Rangers and I kind of knew in my heart that there was no chance of winning the league.
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"But there was two cups to win and the first one was the League Cup and our semi-final opponents were Celtic, as I'm sure everyone will remember. The thing that was in my head was 'what if I never win against Celtic?', I was thinking the bad thoughts. But I'm normally a cup half-full man and I said 'what if we do win?', it's a pathway to bigger and better things.
"Of course, in that semi-final at Hampden that night Bert Konterman struck a 25-yarder which was a brilliant finish. Again, it was a good strategy, we kept Celtic's strong points on hold and we went about the game. We ended up winning two cups that season to counter Celtic's title win but that was the only success I could've had because I knew Celtic had already won the league and that was so memorable going into my next season.
"Then Rangers winning the Treble, you are hoping that it will never end but you know at some stage there's going to be a wee shift in things and that's what happened."
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