IF Rangers overcome their city rivals Celtic in the Viaplay Cup final at Hampden on Sunday afternoon, there are sure to be some who declare that the balance of power in Scottish football is shifting.
The Ibrox club have impressed since Michael Beale took over as manager back at the end of November and have gone unbeaten in all 14 of the matches he has taken charge of.
Could lifting the first piece of silverware of the 2022/23 season have, even though Celtic are nine points clear at the top of the cinch Premiership table, wider ramifications? Many will interpret it as being significant.
Not, though, Beale himself.
The Englishman is under no illusions about where Rangers are at the present moment in time and understands there is much work remaining to be done to make them the dominant force in the game in this country again.
He does not feel that a cup final triumph over Celtic, which would be celebrated joyously by their tens of thousands of supporters, will have any bearing on the Scottish title race whatsoever.
“After this weekend my job doesn’t get any bigger or smaller,” he said. “It’s still going to be a huge job come Monday and my in-tray is going to be really big.
“This is a one-off game. Would I like us to be in an even stronger place going in? Yes, but I don’t remember too many times when both teams were going in on the back of such long unbeaten runs.
“Naturally, something has got to give and I’m hoping that I’m delighted on Sunday evening I’m not lower than a snake’s belly. But ultimately on Monday we’ve got a lot of work to do. We don’t want to go too overboard on it because it’s just one game.”
Beale added: “I get that everyone is talking about the momentum that could be got from winning this trophy. But after this I still have a lot of work to do, whether we win or lose the game. Come Monday my head will firmly be back on how I’m taking Rangers forward in the longer term.
“Listen, the League Cup is a trophy I want to win. But at the start of the season I don’t know where it is in the pecking order. It’s not number one. So it’s important that after this weekend we get back to trying to pick up the trophies we want to.”
Beale increased his options when he brought two new players in during the January transfer window – midfielders Todd Cantwell and Nicolas Raskin arrived from Norwich City and Standard Liege respectively – and he expects both men to make a difference against Celtic.
However, he anticipates the experienced members of his Rangers squad will also be massively important and realises the likes of Allan McGregor, James Tavernier, Connor Goldson, Ryan Kent and Alfredo Morelos will be determined to add to their haul of major honours.
“They (Cantwell and Raskin) have a lot of belief in themselves and rightly so,” he said. “They are two good young players. I think they come in with a freedom of not being caught up in the politics of Scottish football, if you like, and everything around this fixture.
“Maybe they can just come in and play with real freedom. They are two boys who have signed up for a long journey at the club. Therefore their energy and their innocence towards the pressures and expectations I think is quite nice at this moment in time.
“They have performed well when they are not at their maximum fitness yet. They both came in having not played for two or three months and in the last two or three weeks we have tried to help that with minutes on the pitch. But they are still getting into tune with their team mates.”
Beale added: “For a few players who’ve been here since I came in in 2018, this would complete their set. In the last 18 months, they’ve won a league unbeaten, won a Scottish Cup and reached a Europa League final.
“This is an experienced group and we just need to pull on that experience this weekend in terms of their performance levels.”
Many players are sure to depart Rangers in the summer and several new additions brought in; but Beale baulks at suggestions that he has an ageing squad which is approaching the end of its time at Ibrox.
“Nico Raskin and Todd Cantwell coming in has changed the perception a little bit,” he said. “We’ve got Malik Tillman. If Tom Lawrence was fit alongside Ianis Hagi after his long-term injury then people would be going there’s loads of energy in the future for Rangers. Ben Davies has done ever so well in the last few weeks.
“With another three or four like them (Cantwell and Raskin) to come in during the summer, I think we’ll be in a really good place.”
This will be the first cup final that Beale has been involved in as a manager – but he stressed that he is more than comfortable with being the focus of attention.
“I prefer it much more,” he said. “I say that because I get to map out the week the way I feel it. I get to get my message across. Having worked as an assistant and first-team coach, I was allowed to put my message into the team. But it’s slightly different when you’re the manager as you are front and centre of it.
“We won’t be doing anything special for this week. Our preparations will be exactly the same in terms of the meetings we do. It’s an opponent we know well. We have been very good sparring partners - these two teams - for each other for a long, long while now.”
Michael Beale was promoting Viaplay’s exclusively live coverage of the Viaplay Cup Final between Rangers and Celtic on Sunday from 2pm. Viaplay is available to stream from viaplay.com or via your TV provider on Sky, Virgin TV and Amazon Prime as an add-on subscription.
