Michael Beale now faces ‘critical’ outcome as Rangers sack decision made by John Bennett after Celtic loss – Keith Jackson
Michael Beale won’t be sacked at Rangers over the international break but his situation could become “critical” this month if he fails to avoid further problems, according to Keith Jackson.
The Daily Record journalist reported on the paper’s website Wednesday morning (6 September) that John Bennett “will resist calls” to remove the under-fire Gers boss “despite the outpouring of fan fury” after the 1-0 loss to Celtic on Sunday (3 September), but Beale will have to “deliver an immediate upturn in results”.
According to Jackson, the Rangers chairman is “determined” to give his manager the “benefit of the doubt” but the 43-year-old will need to “avoid another European humiliation” and successfully reach the League Cup semi-final to prevent his job situation becoming “critical”, while any hope of “keeping both the supporters and the board onside” will be lost if more SPFL points are dropped this month.
After the international break Beale has three league games against St Johnstone, Motherwell and Aberdeen, as well as a Europa League match with Real Betis and the cup quarter-final against Livingston.
The club denied links to Kevin Muscat as a possible replacement on Tuesday with fans increasingly calling for the manager to go after the Old Firm defeat followed a 5-1 thrashing at PSV to end Champions League qualification hopes.
No margin for error
Beale was, perhaps rightly, given the benefit of the doubt for most of last season having come in with the European campaign already over in historically bad fashion, and with the league looking out of reach.
But his failure in both of the cups, as well as not getting a win against Celtic until the title was already gone, used up a lot of good will.
Having embarked on a major rebuild over the summer the former QPR boss might justifiably argue that there are going to be growing pains this term.
But he knew he wouldn’t have much time to overcome them, and so far it feels like the team has gone backwards from the previous campaign.
Perhaps after a couple more months with his new squad he will have got everything clicking, and with Celtic looking far from unbeatable under Brendan Rodgers that might be enough for a title race.
But having already committed three major errors in an opening day defeat to Kilmarnock, a spectacular failure in the European qualifiers and another derby loss there fewer and fewer willing to give him that chance.
Spending so much money this summer for one manager only to remove him within the first two months would be a chaotic move, but if Beale continues to fail to put his plan into action that might be exactly what happens.
In other Rangers news, a BBC pundit blasted the “dobber” who harassed Todd Cantwell in public after the Celtic defeat.