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Even before the ink has dried on your contract, life as an Old Firm boss can often hit managers with a major reality check.
When he took charge of Celtic in the summer of 2016, Brendan Rodgers lost his first game in charge with a calamitous 1-0 loss to a Gibraltar pub team.
In the space of just three days, Ange Postecoglou oversaw defeats to Midtjylland and Hearts when she arrived at Parkhead in the summer of 2021.
Celtic can move nine points clear of their rivals with a win at Ibrox on Monday afternoon
Michael Beale has enjoyed a good start at Rangers but his team have so far failed to convince
In fact, Celtic lost three of their first six league games with the Australian, before hitting the ground running and winning last season’s league title.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst sat in the stands at Hampden in November 2021 and watched his new team Rangers lose 3-1 to Hibernian in a League Cup semi-final.
Once again, another revelation, and, this time, before he had even properly taken charge of the team.
Rangers have struggled against weaker opposition than Celtic in a few patches of their games.
Michael Beale hasn’t hit that kind of bump yet. But, still in the infancy of his tenure at Ibrox, I have seen enough to suggest that he is definitely in the post.
It looked like it might as well come against Aberdeen at Pittodrie just a couple of weeks ago, only for the Dons to implode in the dying minutes.
But defensively, I still think there are big question marks surrounding this Rangers team. They don’t convince me at all.
Aberdeen and Hibs took two goals from them, and they should have been more. If Celtic reach full speed they could go on a rampage at Ibrox on Monday afternoon.
Yes, I know Rangers have had clean sheets in their last two games. But, with all due respect, those came against Ross County and Motherwell.
Celtic are playing football on a different planet than those types of teams and will be asking Rangers questions that I don’t think Beale’s team will be able to answer.
Listen, Beale must have gone into this with his eyes wide open. She will be fully aware of the size of the rebuilding she is facing at Ibrox. But if anyone is in any doubt, ask yourself a simple question: How many current Rangers would make the Celtic team?
You would have to say none. I don’t think you can make a conclusive case for any of them.
There is a chance the Rangers will be steamrolled by their crosstown rivals on Monday afternoon.
Against Aberdeen they fought and were it not for the capitulation of the hosts they might have suffered
At most, there are maybe a 50-50 pair.
Maybe you’d pick Connor Goldson over Carl Starfelt, but Goldson has been miles away since Rangers won the league.
Similarly, perhaps he could defend Borna Barisic ahead of Greg Taylor at left-back. Even that feels a bit over the top.
Barisic has a habit of missing out on these Old Firm games, while Taylor has been one of the most improved players in the country over the last year or so.
Other than that, there is no one in this Rangers team that comes close to the Celtic team.
If you were picking a Mixed XI, the entire midfield and front line would be dressed in green and white.
Ryan Kent ahead of Jota? Do not make me laugh. I said it before this season: Jota is the player Kent dreams of being.
Kent is a show pony who too often flatters to deceive. The end product of him is pitiful for a player who cost Rangers £7m.
To be honest, Celtic could probably field two completely different midfields that would still be better than Rangers’ first-choice trio.
The Celts are dynamic and youthful looking with a clear plan of how they want to play.
Ange Postecoglou has them well trained and as such they could blow up Rangers at Ibrox.
The rangers are so slow and pedestrian in the middle of the park. They lack ideas and creativity, and that is where I expect Celtic to expose them this afternoon.
Beale has an aging team on his hands and Celtic have all the firepower to turn this into a huge reality check for the new Rangers boss this afternoon.
This could be the day the gulf between these teams clears up for Beale.
If Celtic play to the best of their ability, they will sail to victory.
It’s up to them to play the game on their own terms. If they do that, the Rangers just don’t have the quality to come close to them.
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Celtic travel to Ibrox with a healthy lead at the top of the table. Normally, in that scenario, they would be more than happy to settle for a draw.
But I don’t think Postecoglou would come up with the idea of playing for one point. There is weakness and fragility in this Rangers team, so Celtic will go on the attack.
It’s the Rangers who go into this knowing it’s win or lose. If they lose to their rivals today, the title race will end in the first week of the new year.
The second half of the season would become a procession, with Celtic chasing various records and the prospect of another treble.
One record that won’t escape your notice is the chance to surpass the point total set by Rodgers’ Invincibles in 2017.
Celtic collected 106 points that year from their 38 games, winning 34 and drawing four. They are in the middle of the stage this season and have 54 points in their 19 games.
Postecoglou’s team has a chance to almost finish the title race in the first week of January.
So victory at Ibrox this afternoon would kick off a second half of the season where, if they win all their games, they would top the Invincibles’ points total.
With 61 goals scored so far, they are also on pace to erase the number of goals scored (106) by the class of 2017.
With such a lack of competition in terms of the title race, it’s little things like that that can motivate players, even when it seems like there isn’t much left to play for.
I always felt that Old Firm games went both ways.
Or you wanted to absorb it and celebrate it. Or, if you lost, you wanted to turn off your phone and lock yourself in a dark room for the next few days.
One thing is for sure. This afternoon’s loss would certainly put out the lights on the Rangers’ dim title hopes.