Michael Beale has contradicted official club partner Heart & Hand after the manager hinted Ben Davies remains part of his plans for next season, following the media group claiming Davies was to be sold.

Discussing his strategies for next season, Beale confirmed the importance of bringing in some defenders, and specifically name-dropped Davies as one the new arrivals would be some competition for, which poured some cold water on the idea he’s being touted for a sale.

Davies definitely hasn’t impressed on his maiden season – lightweight and lacking any real presence, the former Sheffield man is around a £500,000 defender at a level of about England’s League One lower Championship, and that’s shown in his performances.

But the suggestions he’s not in the manager’s plans made by H&H now appear to be wide of the mark if Beale’s comments are true, and that the boss sees the former Liverpool defender as remaining at Ibrox next season.

We know, what Beale says we can often take with a sack of Saxa never mind a pinch of salt, but this is an explicit contradiction to information that’s out there, so is he just being nice about Davies and pretending with a Beale-esque red herring that the left-sided defender is part of his vision?

Or is he being straight, and that Davies will be his main stopper?

There’s also another angle – Beale has been very happy with John Souttar, and the manager confirmed he’s looking at the idea of a three at the back as well, meaning all three of them would feature.

But of course with Goldson’s injury that has now been thrown up in the air as well.

In short, Davies may not be moving on after all, albeit we’re sure that’s dependent on what bids might be received. Rangers paid a ludicrous £4M for this guy, something Ibrox Noise deeply questioned at the time, so we’d want to recoup a lot of that if he was going out.

But hey, Beale says he isn’t so we’ll see.