In yet another Michael Beale shambles, the manager has passively aggressively attacked Rangers fans by hinting the supporters might be foolish regarding the players at Ibrox.
In a rather damaging press conference in which Beale offered far too many combative comments and not enough placating ones, the manager offered this on the topic of fans being unhappy with the players:
“I’ve not personally discussed that with them. The fans are really frustrated and disappointed. If they think the players aren’t then that’s foolish of them because the players also live and breathe it every day and there’s been some really honest words been said in-house that will remain between us as a group. But the talking needs to be done on the football pitch now.”
To say this about supporters who live and breathe Rangers as opposed to the likes of Kieran Dowell who barely even knew Rangers before Michael Beale snapped them up is utterly insulting and ridiculous.
Yes, Beale is adding a ‘condition’ that ‘if’ the fans don’t think the players are frustrated then they’re foolish, but with all due respect Rangers supporters pay Michael Beale’s and the players’ wages and are allowed to think what the heck they like without being literally smeared for it.
This is yet another example of a truly dire media performance from Beale, who’s going in the direction of Steven Gerrard and Giovanni van Bronckhorst with press conferences which got increasingly ‘strained’ and ‘unconventional’ towards the ends of their respective tenures as managers.
Gerrard got combative with the board and actually called them out for not supporting him financially the summer of the Malmo exit, and Gio got more and more ‘honest’ as things started tumbling following initially always having been guarded.
Beale is now hinting at supporter intelligence and the mockery of the suggestion fans might believe players aren’t hurting as much as they are. We’re pretty sure that is accurate, incidentally.
Or, Michael, are they just ‘disappointed’?
It’s one thing to criticise the board, another one to criticise the players, but a whole new ball game to infer a dig at the fans. Mind you, it’s not the first time he’s done that – as assistant Rangers coach he smeared a fan via social media for daring to criticise Steven Gerrard’s regime some years ago. We were disquieted by that at the time too.
That’s a new one to us in press conferences though, and we’re not particularly convinced that Beale has what it takes mentally to handle the demands of managing Rangers.