Michael Beale to Rangers puts senior job at risk as Michael Stewart moots Ibrox exits
The problems at Rangers didn’t all leave with the sacking of Giovanni van Bronckhorst and they won’t all be washed away with the arrival of Michael Beale.
With the QPR boss the chosen one to take over after Ross Wilson went to bat for the man he has a strong relationship with from their previous time together at the club, if he fails he surely takes the board member with him.
Dutchman Van Bronckhorst presided over a miserable first half of the reason on the pitch, and he can’t escape responsibility for a lot of that, but he also wasn’t given the tools that many expected by the club, and particularly the sporting director.
The Gers have brought in millions over the past six months, from the sales of Calvin Bassey to Ajax and Joe Aribo to Southampton, followed by qualification to the Champions League group stage, but the summer transfer signings have been hit and miss at best.
Van Bronckhorst has paid the price but Wilson played a major role in that failure, even if injuries did ruin some plans which made sense.
BBC Sportscene pundit Michael Stewart, reacted to the removal of the former manager by pointing the finger of blame at the club and suggested others could feasibly be sent packing if there was real accountability.
While he often doesn’t need a second opportunity to criticise Rangers he is right on that point.
In his column for The Times on 22 November he said: “Rangers simply haven’t got the balance right with their summer signings. There are too many “projects”, too many technical players with very little desire or fight. For me, this falls primarily on the club’s shoulders, rather than those of Van Bronckhorst.
“Rangers are a club with a sporting director and a director of football administration. Both those directors will oversee departments which are responsible for arming the manager with the tools he needs. The club has failed on this count.
“Being able to look and recognise your own failings is a rare thing. Whether anyone at Ibrox will follow this path remains to be seen. It is certainly far easier just to sack the manager and try to move on.”
It is without doubt a risk to bring Beale back and hand him the keys at such a crucial period for the club, with a genuine danger of Rangers getting stuck playing catch up to Celtic for multiple seasons if this appointment doesn’t go right.
Perhaps it proves a masterstroke, and Wilson rescues his reputation among the fans who are unhappy with his performance in the transfer market.
But by pushing to appoint a manager who has a grand total of 22 games experience, and just three wins from his previous eight, when other senior figures at the club reportedly wanted to explore other options such as Sean Dyche, he has tied his own future to the new boss.
West London Sport reported on 26 November: “[Beale] has a close relationship with Rangers sporting director Ross Wilson, who is keen to appoint him, although other senior figures at the club are believed to want to explore other options, including former Burnley boss Sean Dyche.”
Plenty of Bears fans would have preferred Wilson to be removed before Van Bronckhorst, but having apparently won a power struggle for the replacement he has taken a risk.
If it pays off then the club benefits and he will be safe, but if Beale isn’t the same calibre of manager as he was a coach then the sporting director isn’t going to be able to sack him without repercussions of his own.
In other Rangers news, Beale’s integrity on the way back into Ibrox has been called into question.