Rangers manager Michael Beale has taken a completely new approach on Scott Wright

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Rangers manager Michael Beale has taken a completely new approach on Scott Wright
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - JANUARY 02: Scott Wright of Rangers in action during the Cinch Scottish Premiership match between Rangers FC and Celtic FC at Ibrox Stadium on January 02, 2023 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Mark Runnacles/Getty Images)

If there’s someone we’ve barely touched upon the past few months, it’s Scott Wright, the former Aberdeen winger and surprising regular under former manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst.

Our ‘new’ manager Michael Beale has not used Wright anything like Gio did, only using him as sub, managing just 101 minutes of football in total since Beale took over.

This is nothing more than a damning indictment of the decision to sign Wright, whose biggest cameo under Beale lasted just 32 minutes – Wright, was, of course, brought in under Steven Gerrard and then-assistant Beale, but we were always bemused by some fans’ blind faith about him, and the cult following he had.

He managed 19 starts under Gio, and 40 appearances in total. It’s now just 101 minutes in 9 sub outings under Beale.

Ibrox Noise was always in favour of Wright as an impact sub, and he did provide some good moments in those sub appearances, a few good runs here and there and some nuisance-making.

But at the age of 25 the comparison was always against Ryan Kent, and the blatant reality he’s not even a quarter of the player of Rangers’ first-choice winger.

Ibrox Noise has always preached that endlessly, even in the face of fellow fans criticising Kent and wanting Wright to get more of a chance. Well, Michael Beale disagrees with you, and it was certainly an error from Gio to give Wright so much airtime.

Wright is an ok sub, he has uses late on in a match against tiring defenders, but he’s generally well below the standards needed for this club overall.

Now, we say that with a caution – we also argued against Fashion Sakala on similar grounds, and he’s proven us completely wrong about him. But in our defence, he was already a Zambia international and had experience in Belgium’s top flight. He’d also shown many glimpses as a Rangers player of the quality he had. He just needed nurturing, and Beale’s been the right man to do that.

Wright? He was a fringe Aberdeen winger (without a senior cap to his name) who we inexplicably signed on the back of a decent performance against us years ago, and that’s about the height of him. He will have his moments, he’s not absolutely garbage. His goal v Hearts in the final was a highlight.

But Beale is absolutely reducing his minutes at Ibrox to what they should be, and keeping him as a quick pacy tool to use later on in matches.

He’s getting the best from Sakala and Kent, and he’s demoted Wright to a bit-part role. It’s the correct decision.

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