Now we are not fully into a full year of Michael Beale being Rangers manager, however in this time he’s had plenty of time to work with players and make decisions that will ultimately see him lose his job.
FOR one, I want to see Rangers win, and play attacking attractive football, being aggressive with a high press, taking the game to the opposition, being fearless and leaving everything out on the pitch.
I want a successful Rangers; we did have an excellent squad 24 months ago – however due to bad management in boardroom, a director of football thinking he knew better than everyone, and lack of support for two managers, we are now left with a manager who’s been given full control with very little oversight from those now in the boardroom.
The issue we now face, believe it or not, all goes back to when we won 55. We had a chance to build on success, and try to get further ahead of an already broken Celtic. But for some reason Stevie G was not backed accordingly in the summer, and so when the big money of the EPL came calling he up and left.
Along came GVB, who had an excellent CV – one much better than SG. As alluded to in previous articles on here, his man management style didn’t seem to be the best, but we can’t forget the memorable nights in that UEL run in 2022 where he managed to deliver & execute game plans perfectly, showing tactical flexibility. But for all that, losing a lead in domestic league, and a poor performance in the UCL sealed his fate and we waved bye to GVB.
So the board in their wisdom decided to appoint another inexperienced manager, who had very little in way of being his own man despite being an impressive coach. Michael Beale brought in Cantwell and Raskin in January & they looked bargain buys, and he was also getting performances from the team but failed to beat Celtic when it mattered and ended the season empty-handed.
During the period after taking over Beale had decided that a number of players weren’t for him – so we waved bye bye in the summer to McGregor, Helander, Kamara, Davis, Arfield, Kent, Sakala, Morelos, Colak, Hagi and with it brought in some good money.
But now the money that was brought in, with another few million on top of it, seems to have been wasted on players who are substandard. If Beale was a good judge of player, then he should have known that investment was needed in defence. We are never going to win the league when Tav & Goldson are first choice picks all the time no matter the number of goals they cost us.
I am not alone in thinking that Beale needed time to get the players to gel, give him time I wrote on here, but after watching Un-Rangers like performances I can only come to the conclusion that Beale is way out of his depth here, along with his coaching staff.
I don’t dislike him or his staff, I just don’t think that they are up for the job.
Anyone can see that we have a soft side, and it’s bad when your best player is toss up between your new goalkeeper or a player than many fans wanted shot of during the summer (Butland & Matondo). It also says a lot that a player that Beale wanted reportedly rid of, is now number one choice as our forward in Roofe – something seems very strange indeed that Beale doesn’t seem to trust his own signings now.
Yes, Michael Beale has not had the rub of the green with injuries, but he’s got a large squad at his disposal to deal with this plus we should have taken advantage of Celtic’s injury crisis and gone at them. But again this shows Beale’s tactical inexperience of being the main man making these types of calls.
This season fans don’t feel like the club has an identity they can get behind in terms of the style of football; as I stated earlier our football is nothing like what we want to see being played at Rangers. And I hate to say it, it’s painful to watch at times. We are far too slow when it comes to our play, we allow the opposition to get back into shape, far too slow when trying to get the ball forward.
As stated earlier, over the next few months (if he lasts that long) are massively important for Beale.
Starting against Livingston, he needs to win but also win with style, as we really should be winning the League Cup this season. Then we have the Sheep lovers of Aberdeen in town, then next week a trip to Cyprus. By then we should have a clearer idea if things have improved on the field.
If things go against us, and Beale leaves who do we get in? Do we go back to GVB and ask him to come back? Or do we wipe the slate clean, and scour the globe for a successful manager with pedigree, one who’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers. A Kevin Muscat personality type?
Is all up in the air, all ifs and buts.
But one thing is clear, a huge improvement is needed if not it’s P45 for Beale.