By Sean Fisher

1st Dec, 2022 | 6:10am

Rangers board should have 'looked around more' before rushing to appoint Michael Beale - Gordon Smith

Michael Beale was named the new Rangers boss this week just over a year after he departed Ibrox as Steven Gerrard’s assistant manager.

Beale spent three years in Glasgow by Gerrard’s side as Rangers scooped up the league title in impressive fashion. He now returns to Ibrox to take the hot seat himself.

But ex-Rangers player and director Gordon Smith has major concerns about the club’s appointment of Beale, and believes the club should have expanded their managerial search before rushing to appoint Beale.

Speaking to Football Scotland, the 67-year-old said: “I’d have looked around more broadly to see who was available. I’m not saying he’s not the man for the job because I don’t know him well enough to know his character.

“If I was in a position to appoint someone I’d maybe have done a bit more due diligence, but there’s always a risk to every single managerial appointment.

“You can’t take that away, we’ll need to wait and see how he does. There’s at least one thing you can say and that’s that he’s not coming to a successful Rangers team at the moment which could be an advantage because he won’t be judged on how things are going at the moment.

“It’s a bit of a free hit considering Celtic are so far ahead.”

Safe option?

Smith clearly believes Rangers opted for Beale as he was the safest and most comfortable option for the club to succeed Giovanni van Bronckhorst.

But there is certainly a big risk factor when it comes to Beale – his inexperience. The 42-year-old’s only experience as a manager came at QPR, where he started extremely well but then tailed off as rumours of his future started circling.

He did a fantastic job at Ibrox as Gerrard’s assistant, but that doesn’t guarantee similar results on his comeback.

The safest option for Rangers would’ve been going for an experienced out-of-a-job manager such as Sean Dyche, who was heavily linked with the vacancy.

But the club and the board clearly have faith in Beale to deliver results in Glasgow and close the gap to Celtic. As for other managerial options, hiring a manager midway through the season is always a difficult ask and luring Beale away from London was hard enough as it is.

He was made the immediate favourite after news of Van Bronckhorst’s sacking, but that doesn’t necessarily make his appointment a comfortable option.

In other Rangers news, Tam McManus believes Michael Beale is arriving at Rangers amid ‘strange’ developments behind the scenes at Ibrox