Kris Boyd: Rangers would have fired Michael Beale already with his QPR record
Michael Beale would have reached “the end” at Rangers already if he had the same recent record as he does at QPR, says Kris Boyd.
The former Ibrox forward has major doubts over the former assistant to Steven Gerrard “if, as expected, he is appointed over the weekend”, based on his inexperience as a manager in his own right, and the recent slump in form his side has had in the English Championship.
He calls the proposed return to Glasgow for the 42-year-old “such a monumental gamble for Rangers” because he says Beale has proven himself as maybe the best coach on the training ground the club have ever had, but Boyd has none of that confidence that the 42-year-old is ready for such a high-pressure top job.
He asked in his column for the Scottish Sun on Friday night (25 November): “Is someone who has managed for just 22 games in his career ready for that?
“Beale started the season well at QPR and that led to him being linked with the Wolves job.
“But while QPR still sit seventh in the Championship, they are seven points from automatic promotion and only eight above the relegation places.
“They have not won in five games and at Rangers that would be the end of you. At QPR, you’ll be given time to find your feet in a tough league.
“At Rangers, you don’t get time in an even less forgiving environment.”
Giant leap
It is without doubt a big risk to hand the reins to Beale when the Light Blues are at risk of falling behind Celtic for the foreseeable future without the right appointment.
While his supporters can justifiably point to the gamble the club took in giving Gerrard the job it was at the time a Gers side who were still on their way back to the top.
The climb which the former Liverpool captain did subsequently successfully complete ended a period of dominance for Celtic that the fanbase doesn’t want to go through again.
Get the next appointment wrong, and what currently looks like two consecutive SPFL titles for the Hoops could turn into more, while get it right and even the second might be prevented.
When Beale left Gerrard’s side at Aston Villa and quickly had QPR at the top of the table in the English second tier earlier this seasons he was looking every bit the genius that so many regard him as.
But Boyd is right that his recent run, which includes five defeats and a draw from the last eight in the league, would get him ejected from Rangers pretty sharply, and without the evidence that he can turn that kind of sequence around there will be doubts.
He is highly-rated but still unproven, so zeroing in on him is a high-risk high-reward strategy from the Ibrox hierarchy, and only time will tell if they have got it right, if they complete this appointment.
In other Rangers news, one popular figure in Scotland has been mooted for a possible Ibrox role on the new staff.