Michael Beale has taken a thinly-veiled jab at his squad by suggesting they’re shirkers, after ‘joking’ that it’s amazing how many players suddenly became fit prior to the cup final.

In a ‘tongue in cheek’ moment, Beale took aim at the number of injuries he had and the fact he had as many as 24 players fit for the Celtic final, which was probably the highest he’s had since he took over, and he couldn’t help himself with a little jibe at that:

He’s not wrong in fairness – Rangers have been, like Chelsea this past 6 months, absolutely submerged under a diabolical injury situation, a shocking blight, and yet when a big showpiece occasion appears, suddenly everyone has miraculously recovered, as he also mentioned re: John Souttar as well.

Not only that, Ridvan Yilmaz is getting closer as is Rabbi Matondo.

What does this tell you? It tells you Rangers players, for the majority, are gutless – we’re seeing so much of that this season – that all the heart went into Sevilla, but even the final was gutless, and the Scottish Cup is the last time the players really tried, and that was for a trophy. Unless you count Holland?

But Beale is calling them out on it, and we don’t exactly blame him on this one – there are way too many shirkers in the side – Kamara, Tillman, even Alfredo Morelos doesn’t put the yards in and Fashion Sakala is falsely praised as hard-working when he really isn’t.

And yes, we’re not afraid to call these guys out at all – we’re only surprised the manager resisted throwing a few of them under the bus as they probably deserve.

Shirkers? For sure. Gutless? For sure. Losers? For sure. This is not the proud Rangers team it should be, it doesn’t win with heart and guts and two trophies in 11 or 12 years sums up where it is these days.

Celtic are not a good team, but they have more heart at the moment and unless Beale figures out a way to make his team give 110% in these big, big matches, it’s not going to change any time soon.