Ally McCoist shares verdict on possibility of Michael Beale and Steven Gerrard returning to Rangers as new manager
Ally McCoist has admitted that he is unsure if Michael Beale is the right man to replace Giovanni van Bronckhorst as Rangers manager.
The current QPR boss has been heavily linked to the job at Ibrox after Van Bronckhorst was sacked on Monday (21 November), with reports that he has told QPR he wants to take the role.
But while appearing on the talkSPORT breakfast show live from Qatar (22 November), McCoist admitted it would be a bit of a gamble to hire him despite his good start to being a number one in west London.
“Excellent reports about Michael as a coach, is it just a little bit early? I’m not sure. I’m really not sure,” he said.
“Do you go for more experience? Someone like Sean Dyche or one or two others.
“Michael Beale is certainly very well thought of but I’m not sure if it’s maybe a little bit early because it’s a massive job.
“The pros are he knows the place, he’s been there before, the players know him and he’s had a better than reasonable start to his managerial career at QPR, although they have dipped a little bit, losing four of their last five.”
McCoist also commented on the possibility of a return for Gerrard, a year on from his exit for Aston Villa.
“I am pretty open minded, I’m eager and keen to find out who the replacement will be,” he admitted. “There is no real standout candidates, I think it is pretty open between four and five.
“I don’t think that will happen (Gerrard return), I wouldn’t say burnt bridges, far from it, I would say the vast majority of the Rangers support were delighted with the job he did winning that big title but I think there is one or two who are not happy the way it ended and I think it would be tough to come back from that.”
Sense
There is no doubting that Beale has had a great start to his managerial career with QPR since taking over in the summer, and there’s no doubt that Van Bronckhorst had to go.
But anyone suggesting that Beale wouldn’t be a huge gamble is surely mad, considering this is first job in management and the first sign of adversity has seen the team struggle badly.
There are plenty of pros to bringing him in, the fact he knows much of the squad really well already is obviously one, but since turning down the Wolves job he’s struggled to get back on track.
As for Gerrard, it would be a backwards step to bring him back just a year after he ditched the club for the Premier League, considering there have been big changes to the squad since then and there’s no guarantee he wouldn’t do it again.
McCoist is spot on that there isn’t a stand-out candidate and while a new man needs to come in quickly to have as much time with the squad as possible, it must be the right man or we’ll be back here within a year again.
In other Rangers news, stance shared on English manager’s chances of job at Ibrox