Michael Beale appears to have pinned the blame of Fashion Sakala’s Rangers exit on Sakala himself, in stark contrast to the player’s own take, and widely-documented dismay at leaving, while also rather giving away that it was himself who forced the striker out.
We are well aware Michael Beale is prone to the occasional ‘porky’ or two, shall we say, having been caught red-handed a multitude of times spouting absolute nonsense, and we cannot help but suspect this is another instance.
On Sakala’s exit he said:
“Fashion Sakala is very close to moving to a team in Saudi (Arabia). On that one he was a player I was counting on, so he’s a boy I have a really good relationship with, strong, maybe stronger than anybody else in the group. He’s done very well for us. The strength of the relationship was probably important because the offer for him and his family I felt was a really good one so it was one we spoke at length about.”
So, at this point Beale is basically saying he loved Sakala more than he loved any other player, and he was ‘counting’ on him, and hinting in a small way the lad may actually have let him down by taking this offer.
But then goes on:
“He leaves with everyone’s well-wishes, he’ll always been invited back but I think sometimes there’s football and there’s obviously life and that was an offer I think financially that Fashion and his family he should have took and he has done that.”
He gives clearly away here that he told Sakala he wasn’t needed, the offer was preferred, and it was bon voyage, while trying to suggest it was purely the Zambian’s choice.
The problem with this quote is once again Beale says far too much, contradicting himself in places and spouting a lot of rubbish.
It was widely-understood Sakala did NOT want to leave, and his heartfelt exit statement confirms that, without overtly saying it explicitly. The big doozy?
After Beale claimed the relationship he had with the player was the strongest he had with anyone, Sakala hadn’t even mention him by name in the thanks. He mentions ‘management’ in general and refers to all the coaches he had but didn’t specify Beale at all which hints that the ‘special relationship’ only really existed in Beale’s head.
As we always said, we never cared on Ibrox Noise what Michael Beale says in pressers, as long as he wins on the pitch. Well he hasn’t done much of that recently so he’s not got results to fall back on.
Less talk more win, Michael.