Robby McCrorie will surely quit Rangers in January as Michael Beale sack decision made
It’s been a tough year for Robby McCrorie at Rangers – and things could be made much harder after a decision was made on Michael Beale’s Ibrox future.
The Rangers goalkeeper has been a bit-part player at Ibrox ever since his emergence in the first team in August 2021, and since then he’s only gone on to make five league appearances.
The Light Blues reportedly want as much as £1million to sell McCrorie, with his first-team opportunities now increasingly limited at Ibrox following the signing of Jack Butland.
And the young goalkeeper could have sealed his desired exit during the summer transfer window after Mail Plus reported on 11 August, that Premier League giants Manchester United were joined by Hull and Polish champions Rakow Czestochowa in battling for the 25-year-old who is “unsettled” at Rangers and “eager to start afresh away from Ibrox”.
Herald Scotland also reported that Manchester United could have firmed up their interest in McCrorie could the now departed Dean Henderson had joined up with Nottingham Forest, but the Old Trafford outfit ended up going down another route on transfer deadline day.
And it was also understood that Rangers won’t stand in McCrorie’s way regarding a possible exit.
However, no such moves materialised leaving McCrorie now with an uncertain future as a first-team player and with the club now taking a major decision on the managerial front, McCrorie’s regular opportunities at Ibrox are now almost impossible.
As reported by the Daily Record (6 September), chairman John Bennett and other Ibrox chiefs are “ready to stand behind” Beale for now despite disappointing results in the first weeks of the window.
Daily Record journalist Keith Jackson also reported on the paper’s website Wednesday morning (6 September) that 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”.
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”.
Such news will certainly bring an immediate end to McCrorie’s Ibrox career, with Beale a long-time favourite of new signing Jack Butland and the former Manchester United goalkeeper was also preferred as the starting man in their Scottish Cup dead-rubber tie against Greenock Morton, a game McCrorie could well have starred in.
It is no surprise that McCrorie is ready to move on after being at the club since 2015 but only making six first-team appearances in that time.
He looked decent in four outings after the split last season and looked to have put himself in the running for the top job, with Allan McGregor’s storied Rangers career coming to an end and Jon McLaughlin allowed to leave, but it wasn’t to be.
And having kept five clean sheets from those six games, including two in wins against Celtic, the young shot-stopper was certainly well worth his weight in gold as a potential Rangers number one, but Butland was always the clear favourite to be the main man under Beale.
With Beale now destined to remain at the club after the boardroom decision, McCrorie may well already be hatching up plans to quit Ibrox in January, especially with just two years remaining on his current contract.
In other Rangers news, James Tavernier has reacted to jeers the Gers faced after the defeat to Celtic