Michael Beale has said he will be judged on ‘not being second best’ and yet following the cup final, it’s clear Rangers very much currently are.
Speaking at his pre-Hibs presser, the boss was no longer cutting the cocky figure he was the first month, a lot less bullish and a major drop of confidence, and after all his grandstanding about not being second in Glasgow, the cup final has definitely forced a bit of humility from him.
But his comment about it today seemed ill-thought-out:
“We need to win things, it is not about being second best at this club. Ultimately that is what I will be judged on.”
Well, you have already become second-best by losing the cup final, making us ‘runners-up’ so by his own admission, we can certainly begin judging Michael Beale.
And, sadly for him, he’s completely correct. Rangers fans, for the most part, have definitely begun judging him, simply because a trophy rested on it and he screwed up.
He got the starting XI wildly wrong, waited too long to change it, and these mistakes have caused a tonne of the goodwill he’d earned from the results up till then to fade to a heck of a lot less.
Ibrox Noise can count ourselves among those with major misgivings after the final, misgivings only enhanced by that rotten second half v Killie – but our misgivings are over both the squad AND Beale himself.
Because yes, again, the cup final changed everything. And Beale is acknowledging, indirectly, that he’s being judged on that result.
As well he should. The players let the club down, but Beale was a huge part of the incompetence that day and as a Rangers manager, he has to accept his part in it, which, in truth, he has. Sort of.
He will continue to be judged, as the whole club will, for as long as we remain in Celtic’s shadow, and sadly, horribly, despicably, that’s where we are at the moment.
It’s on a major summer to fix this, unless we can scrape ourselves a Scottish Cup triumph Mount Florida again.