Michael Beale has taken a subtle dig at outgone Director of Football Ross Wilson by hinting the ex-Sporting Director ‘slowed things down’ at Rangers and it’s been swifter and more clinical since he moved on.

The-now Nottingham Forest football chief was a deeply unpopular individual at Rangers, particularly with the fans (many of whom hypocritically now praise him and defend him against that former criticism) who held him accountable for the dire signings he’d made under Giovanni van Bronckhorst and his generally poor transfer record.

And Beale subtly joined in on that, suggesting that ‘if anything’ things are being done quicker and faster now that Wilson isn’t in the way.

If nothing else screams at the Rangers board that Michael Beale opposes the idea of Sporting Directors, it’s this. They’re just a suit who gets in the way, and this very productive transfer window, albeit with a lack of attention at defence (trust us, we’re not the only club guilty of this this summer) has shown what can actually be done without one mucking things up and being an obstacle to progress.

This way around, the manager can be judged alone, properly, the way it should be, without a dilution of responsibility where no one is quite sure who signed Ridvan Yilmaz or Malik Tillman, for example, ditto Jordan Jones back in the Steven Gerrard day.

And Michael Beale seems very keen to be judged on what he has done, because the image of this Rangers team now really is his.

He’s been very vocal about chasing all these players down for years, which we’re not exactly sure we entirely believe, but it doesn’t matter – he 100% takes responsibility for the players Rangers have signed in 2023 and he is happy to live or die on that sword.

Without any Sporting Director getting in the way and wrecking things.

We agree with him on this one.