Rangers board eye Birmingham City boss John Eustace as ‘early’ Michael Beale removal ‘anticipated’
John Eustace has emerged as the potential next Rangers manager if under-pressure Michael Beale is removed, according to the Daily Mail.
The paper reported via their website on 6 September that the Birmingham City boss was an “early candidate” for the Ibrox job with “names are already being pushed forward to the Rangers board as an early change is anticipated”.
The Ibrox board are expected to “still want an up and coming coach to meet their profile” and Eustace, 43, is thought to fit the bill after becoming a “favourite with fans” at St. Andrew’s after keeping the club up on a limited budget last term, before a strong start to the new season.
Beale is in a “precarious” position after losing his third game of the season, his fourth Old Firm defeat in six, as Celtic won 1-0 at Ibrox on Sunday.
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Questions about a manager being on the hot seat is one thing but once named alternatives start to emerge it is often just a matter of time.
Rightly or wrongly Beale could lose his job within two months of embarking on his first full season in charge of Rangers, and having presided over a full-scale rebuild in the summer.
Were he to go on a strong winning run after the international break then these early-season struggles may become a thing of the past, given John Bennett is apparently not ready to move yet.
But if the 5-1 thrashing at the hands of PSV Eindhoven went down badly last week it is, unsurprisingly, nothing compared with the reaction to the derby defeat.
The 3-0 win in the final Old Firm of last season was supposed to have been a big hump to get over, and with Celtic struggling to find their own rhythm under the returning Brendan Rodgers, and with injury issues in defence, this was a major opportunity.
Don Robertson’s decision to controversially rule out a Kemar Roofe strike to open the scoring can’t be overlooked, but nor can the fact that Beale hasn’t won a game against the Glasgow rivals with anything riding on it in five attempts.
Something needs to change and the Light Blues boss will be hoping it is the results rather than his employment status.
In other Rangers news, Alan Shearer slammed both sides of the derby for what he saw at the weekend.