Former Rangers full-back Alan Hutton believes Ibrox boss Michael Beale is playing “mind games” with Ange Postecolgou and the Rangers board.

Speaking earlier this month, Beale labelled the Celtic manager a “lucky man” due to the spending power at his disposal.

He followed up on this during an interview with BBC Scotland, stating that Celtic had spent more in the past 12 months than Steven Gerrard did during his entire spell in charge at Ibrox.  

The Rangers manager made his first signing earlier this week as Todd Cantwell arrived on a long-term contract from Norwich, and the club are looking to add more faces before the transfer window closes next week.

Hutton said that Rangers must invest in the squad further to have any chance of catching Celtic at the top of the table.

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The former Rangers defender told Football Insider: “I think it is just a little bit of mind games (over the lucky man claims). Celtic are nine points in front, it seems like everybody they bring in hits the ground running and does really well.

“Maybe it’s a case of that or maybe it is a little cry to the board to say Celtic are strengthening, they are in a place of power at the moment and if we want to get to that level then we need to spend. It could be a little bit of both of those things.

“I understand it. It always goes on in football especially when you are chasing Celtic down. I get what he is saying but I understand why Celtic are getting a bit annoyed with it.”

The sales of Kristoffer Ajer and Odsonne Edouard shortly after Postecoglou came to Celtic Park brought in over £20m, which was used to bring in the likes of Starfelt, Kyogo and Abada as his new-look side marched to the Scottish Premiership title.

Celtic have already added four players to their ranks during this transfer window including Alistair Johnstone and Oh Hyeon-gyu, but have been aided by the sale of Croatian international, Josip Juranovic, who moved to Union Berlin for a reported fee of £10m last weekend.