“Sutton is the Donald Trump of punditry,” Charlie Nicholas

Former Celtic striker Charlie Nicholas has used his column in the Scottish Daily Express to claim that Michael Beale has to be the “lucky guy” he professes to be Ange Postecoglou if he is to take a beating on the Celtic boss and win the League Cup on Sunday.

Beale has, of course, been happily opening his mouth, growling his big belly and showing off his naivety since stepping into the manager’s chair at Ibrox after reportedly wooing for the role while his predecessor was still in charge.

However, it will take more than verbal targeting from the Celtic boss to please the hordes at Ibrox, as they showed with their scathing words to the new incumbent at Livingston on Saturday.

And you can definitely do that the gamekeepers Support will be adamant that Beale wins the League Cup on Sunday afternoon or the rookie boss’s honeymoon will be over for good – if you can be sure the hordes will rebel again.

And Nicholas believes Beale will cut his work in that regard as Postecoglou and Celtic have far better squads than their Glasgow rivals, something Nicholas doesn’t even think is worth discussing.

“Michael Beale will be the ‘lucky one’ in Glasgow if his Rangers (sic) team manage to beat Celtic and win the League Cup. I’m sitting in the Celtic camp expecting Celtic to win the cup final this weekend. I think Beale did better at Rangers (sic) but there is still a gap. Celtic’s squad is much stronger than Rangers (sic). That is an absolute fact.

“Beale is trying to catch up. He won’t win the title. He will know this but will never admit it until it’s done. It would still be an amazing conquest for Beale to lift the trophy having just come through the door. Beale is quite an imaginative coach and I’m sure he’ll make a little tweak here or there.

Yet while Nicholas believes there is little argument for the defense when it comes to it the gamekeepers The ex-Celt overcomes Celtic and feels Beale was quite right to react to Chris Sutton after the Ibrox manager’s public meltdown last week.

And in a clear take on Sutton, who seems to have the kind of media roles Nicholas once had but lost, Charlie has described Sutton as the Donald Trump of football pundits. Meow!

“I’ve said before that Sutton is the Donald Trump of pundits. He pinched and pinched Beale. There was no way Sutton would have attacked Neil Lennon or Martin O’Neill, his two great loves, in this way. Beale did a positive thing against Partick Thistle and it shouldn’t be spun into a negative thing.

While Michael Beale is a suitable target given his position as Chris Sutton the gamekeepers Boss, it remains to be seen whether Nicholas – who has moved further to the periphery of football pundits since being stung by his appearance on SkySports – will warrant a response from football’s ‘Donald Trump’.

Don’t imagine, however, that Sutton won’t have a cutting answer for Charlie. And if Beale is no match for Postecoglou, it could be argued that a verbal battle between Sutton and Nicholas could be similarly incongruous.

Niall J