Michael Beale may have surprised some Rangers fans by confirming Jon McLaughlin is a big part of his first team moving forward, following defending him after the Celtic fiasco and praising his contribution.
Following on from fans’ ire when the deputy keeper was made first pick under former manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Beale appears set to make the same error after he resolutely got behind the former Sunderland man and revealed both he and Allan McGregor will equally compete for the number one shirt.
He said:
“I feel this year the narrative around Jon is a poor narrative. In my time at the club previously and, since I’ve been back, Jon’s record per game with wins and clean sheets is absolutely outstanding. He made quite a high-profile mistake but I don’t think we should condemn him. It’s important that I keep Jon focused and feeling like he is wanted and loved around here because he is.”
That ‘narrative’ is the one where McLaughlin made gaffe after gaffe and looked painfully out of his depth particularly in Europe, so we’d have to respectfully disagree that the narrative isn’t accurate.
He went on:
“If I think it’s right [to select McGregor]. It’s nothing against Allan. Allan obviously came out a few weeks ago at Ross County for Jon to go in. I just had a hunch that this week or looking at this month I wanted Jon to play this game. We’ve played it and we’ve won. Hopefully now some of the fuss can go away. We win with Allan and we win with Jon, that’s a good sign.”
Few would deny Allan McGregor is no longer the goalie he was, but that’s no shock at his age. It’s more bewildering that like Gio before him, Beale is right behind McLaughlin and will pick him regularly in goal, despite the evidence of how dire he was earlier in the season even before the injury crisis ensued.
The bigger picture is there appears no sign whatsoever that a new goalie will be sought this window, and third ‘keeper at Ibrox Robby McCrorie seems to be moving further away from any game time, rather than closer to any.
The McLaughlin obsession at Ibrox remains absolutely flabbergasting.
It’s a big mistake . He will regret it as did Gio . He nearly did a similar thing against Utd on Sunday as he did against the rotten mob. He’s too casual . On the subject of panicking , I don’t but I’m getting a little annoyed at our slow starts , it’s OK when we play a lesser opposition but had the rotten mob or even Utd had better finishing we could have lost 2 early poor goals as a result.
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