Michael Beale said something incredibly worrying to Connie McLaughlin before Rangers’ diabolical capitulation at the hands of PSV, and it had us either thinking he’s a liar or delusional.

Asked by TNT Sports’ resident interviewer why he’d changed Ryan Jack for John Lundstram, he explained because of Lundstram’s speed.

Yes, you read that right.

Michael Beale opted for John Lundstram because of his pace.

Quite literally the slowest player Rangers have in our entire team, a guy who has been carrying a knock for about 18 months and lost form through it, was picked for his pace.

If nothing else shows Michael Beale’s lack of awareness, or delusion, or utter porkying ability, it’s this.

To pick Lundstram because he is ‘fast’ is like picking Borna Barisic because of his ‘power’, or Raskin because of his ‘height’.

We were flabbergasted by this confession, by this reasoning, because it was literal bollocks.

When we first saw the team selection we were bewildered – naturally ‘trust in the manager’ and ‘he knows what he’s doing’ but when Beale said what he did pre-match, we did wonder what John Lundstram he was on about.

Because it’s sure not the one the rest of the support know, who’s been slower than a week in jail for as long as we can remember.

Had we won tonight, or pushed PSV a lot harder than we did, we would not be questioning this bizarre statement – we’d be lauding Beale for his genius and boldness.

But this thing blew up in his face, and if he’s picking Lunny because he’s Speedy Gonzales, we guess he really does think Tav’s a great defender and Goldson’s a worthy stopper.

If our manager believes these things, and still does so despite the capitulation of the defence and Lundstram’s sluggish evening, we worry what else he believes.

Trust in Beale?

Not if he spouts nonsense like that we don’t.