Charlie Austin shocked at unpopular move as Michael Beale leaves QPR for Rangers job
Michael Beale’s exit from QPR to take over at Rangers won’t have “gone down well at all”, according to a shocked Charlie Austin.
The former Loftus Road forward, who has played 148 times for the west London side across two spells at the club, can’t believe that his former side have been left without a manager when it was something he could see coming as soon as the new Ibrox boss was offered the Wolves job in late October.
Beale was officially announced as the 18th Bears manager on Monday (28 November), after a year away, having left to follow former boss Steven Gerrard to Aston Villa, and Austin believes the 42-year-old will have left bad feeling in his wake.
Writing on his personal Twitter account on Monday the Brisbane Roar striker said: “What’s going on in west London, who is going to take the reigns!
“To me this wasn’t a surprise especially with recent links to other opportunities but I know that it wouldn’t of [sic] gone down well at all”.
Trail of destruction
To put it bluntly, Beale’s departure from Loftus Road hasn’t gone down well anywhere other than in Rangers households, and even a few of them might have their doubts.
But QPR did have a responsibility to themselves to make contingency plans if they have a manager in charge who has made his long-term designs on Ibrox known.
Once a Premier League side came calling they should have been getting together ideas of what to do if and when Beale left.
Admittedly, Beale’s comments about loyalty and integrity may have lulled the hierarchy at Loftus Road into a false sense of security, but the chance that Rangers came calling was not so far-fetched as to be disregarded.
Austin could see the writing on the wall from the other side of the world in the A League, so while the new Rangers boss could have helped himself avoid some trouble by saying less publicly, his exit was never an impossibility.
The former Burnley and Southampton striker is right though that the 18th Bears manager’s big move hasn’t gone down well in large part.
But if he can start getting Scottish Premiership wins on the board then the demographic he needs to keep happy most, the Gers supporters, will be right behind him.
In other Rangers news, the club’s first-team “guru” has been cast out after less than four months at the club with the arrival of Beale and his top men.