Rangers board tell Michael Beale to wind his neck in behind the scenes after transfer U-turn – Gary Keown
Gary Keown predicts someone behind the scenes at Rangers told Michael Beale to “wind his neck in” during the January transfer window.
Rangers signed Todd Cantwell and Nicolas Raskin last month but they were also linked with a move for Everton midfielder Tom Davies.
As quoted by the Liverpool Echo on 8 January, Beale raved about 24-year-old Davies amid the speculation, saying he’s similar to John Lundstram and also refusing to rule out a move for him.
On 17 January, Beale then assertively said that there was no interest in Davies [Rangers Review].
Scottish Mail on Sunday columnist Keown noticed this and believes that someone on the Ibrox board may have told Beale to stop talking so openly about transfer speculation to the media.
“There was confusion over transfer policy in January too,” said Keown in the Scottish Mail on Sunday on 26 February (page 109).
“One minute, he was bigging up Tom Davies of Everton and refusing to deny a move.
“The next, he’s saying there was never any interest. As if someone, somewhere behind the scenes, has told him to wind his neck in.”
He’s got a point
On the pitch, Beale has some work to do.
Yes, we’re winning almost every single game but the performances have, at times, been disappointing and that was a trend we were stuck in under Steven Gerrard and Giovanni van Bronckhorst for a lot of their spells.
Other than Celtic, we should be brushing aside every team in the Scottish Premiership.
Beale’s done brilliantly, for what it’s worth. But some of the displays have admittedly been sub-par.
Off the pitch, Beale has been a bit of a loose cannon in front of the microphone.
He’s had spats with Ange Postecoglou and Chris Sutton, he’s dubbed Aberdeen the third-best team in Scotland and he spoke way too openly about transfer targets in January when there was no need to.
Beale’s a rookie manager, at the end of the day, but someone in the communications team perhaps needs to sit down with the Englishman and talk through a few ground rules.
He’s attracted a lot of unwanted attention that’s taken a bit of a shine off of how well he’s done so far.
In other Rangers news, a contract has already been signed for an in-demand attacking player to join the club.