GLASGOW has already been green and white once this season and the city will belong to a celebrating Celtic for the second time sooner rather than later.
Now Michael Beale has just one last chance at ensuring Rangers can take some comfort from the campaign as Rangers bid for a Scottish Cup success that would deny their Old Firm rivals another domestic clean sweep.
Beale inherited a thankless task in the Premiership when he replaced Giovanni van Bronckhorst as boss in December. The nine-point deficit that he was faced with stands at 13 following the defeats to Celtic and Aberdeen that have turned up the volume ahead of the return to Hampden.
The noise level is nothing new to Kris Boyd. He experienced the unique world of life at Ibrox during his successful playing career and now calls it as he sees it as respected observer of our game.
When asked which manager - either Beale or Parkhead counterpart Ange Postecoglou - was under the most pressure ahead of the Scottish Cup semi-final, Boyd briefly paused. His answer of 'Beale' was then followed by an explanation.
“I would have to say Michael Beale," Boyd said as he promoted the charity in his name which raises money and awareness around mental health issues. "Plain and simply because Ange Postecoglou has got the Celtic fans eating out of the palm of his hands, so it doesn’t matter to him.
“At the end of the day, if he gets knocked out on Sunday, Celtic are going to be celebrating the following week anyway. The Celtic fans will forget about it.
“Michael Beale will be looking at it from a point of view that you don’t want to see, it could quite easily be, three weekends or four where you are having to watch your bitter rivals celebrate in the city.
“It comes with the territory. When you are winning at Rangers or Celtic, it is fantastic.
“When you are not, there’s massive pressure comes with it and you need to have strong characters to deal with it and bounce back.
“Because there is no doubt, the start of next season, and I include Europe in that, is going to be huge for Rangers.”
Beale has tried, tried and tried again in the Old Firm encounters since his return to Glasgow. With each unsuccessful attempt at beating Celtic, the pressure has gone up a level.
The draw at Ibrox was a missed opportunity and the defeat at Parkhead ended their title bid. The result, and the performance, in the League Cup final was the worst of the lot so far.
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Next term promises a new look and a fresh approach from Beale and the side that he assembles but the importance of the here and now cannot be lost.
“When you look at every Old Firm game, if you win it, the mood changes," Boyd said. “That’s what it does because it means so much to so many people in their lives.
“Does it change it? It would obviously help in terms of going forward, but nothing changes in that it is a massive summer of recruitment for Rangers.
“It’s a rebuild job. We’ve seen the two players that Michael Beale has been able to bring in so far in (Nicolas) Raskin and (Todd) Cantwell and, if you can go and add those bits of quality around them, you could see them going up a level as well.
“So, listen, there is no doubt Rangers will be searching around the world to try and find players to go in and make a difference because they are going to need three or four at least to, over the course of a season, go with Celtic.
“You can criticise the league all you want in that maybe it’s not been the standard it has been [in the past], but you would have to say Rangers and Celtic are miles ahead of the rest and if you do drop points, it is very difficult to claw them back because you can’t see any of the other teams taking points.
“That’s where the improvement has been for Rangers until Sunday. You can look at them and yes they have lost to Celtic, but Rangers under Michael Beale since he came in have been really good, but they have just come up against a juggernaut in terms of Celtic that’s been difficult to stop.”
There has been a sense since the day that Beale was appointed that he has had one eye on the present and one on the future and he has been fully cognisant of the situation that he has found himself in.
It will take time, money and effort to turn Rangers from challengers into champions. Beale has been open about that process but Sunday is an occasion where the talking must be done on the park.
“I just think it’s the way managers speak nowadays," Boyd said. “I think you’ve always got to defend your team, it’s the way you need to go about your business.
“You’re not going to come out and lambast players. Let’s be realistic, I think there will have been a few times this season he’s probably wanted to because some performances have been miles off it.
“You obviously try to spin a positive response after the game [on Sunday] – but the second half they failed to turn up. There’s no getting away from it, everybody could see it as clear as day.
“Certain individuals didn’t turn up and it ramps up that pressure going into the game on Sunday.
“But as I said, it’s an Old Firm game and if you can’t get yourself up for that then you shouldn’t be at the football club in the first place.
“But I think, for me, Michael Beale has always said that it’s going to take him a couple of transfer windows. I don’t think he’ll be under any pressure at this moment in time.
“But, lose on Sunday and that’s going to put massive pressure on the start of next season and I include in that the start to the European campaign.”
Beale was pointed in his criticisms of his side in the aftermath of the defeat to Aberdeen as Rangers prepared for Hampden in the worst possible manner.
The results, if not all of the performances, up until that fixture had been - the Old Firm fixtures aside - encouraging and positive for the Englishman. But it is one thing being able to see off the rest and quite another being able to beat the best when it really matters.
Boyd said: “You look at Rangers and Celtic and they are that far ahead of the rest that Sunday at Pittodrie is a pretty freak result, isn’t it?
“In terms of Aberdeen, it’s seven years since they were able to beat Rangers at Pittodrie. They should be ashamed of that themselves, however, they enjoyed their night.
“When you look at Rangers, you would expect them to beat the result, but it is irrelevant because what happens every single year is that you are judged on finishing above Celtic, winning cups ahead of Celtic.
“If you do that, you will get all the plaudits and accolades that come with it. If you don’t, you get the criticism that comes with it and you have to deal with it. That’s life of being part of either half of the Old Firm that is not winning.
“There has been plenty of performances this season where Rangers have had rave reviews and rightly so, but there’s also been performances where they are going to get criticised. And, as I said, looking at it, it’s a massive game.
“And if you don’t find a way to get a result against Celtic, you are going to come under pressure again because Celtic will, if they knock Rangers out, win the Treble."
