Michael Beale could face sack decision at Rangers this week as BBC pundit moots ‘serious, serious discussions’ at Ibrox
There will be “serious, serious discussions” at Ibrox over sacking Michael Beale if the Rangers boss fails to win against both Livingston and Aberdeen this week, says Kenny Miller.
The BBC pundit said on Clyde 1 Superscoreboard on 25 September that the Gers boss has to “keep winning” to get through to December and face Celtic again, but believes the club will qualify from the group stage of the Europa League and lift the League Cup in the mean time.
While admitting the Light Blues aren’t playing well he suggested a winning run over the next three months has to lead to some “positivity” despite the situation as it is now.
Miller said (15m 55s): “This is the thing, at the moment it actually is game to game. If Rangers fail to win on Wednesday or even fail to win on Saturday then there is going to be serious, serious discussions probably at Ibrox.
“But I fast forward to this December. You don’t play Celtic until the end of December. I think Rangers will be in the knockout stages of the Europa League come this first week in December.
“In the second week of December I believe Rangers will go on and lift this League Cup in Celtic’s absence, so he needs to get to that point.
“I’m not saying this with any great confidence based on how they played [against Motherwell]… but I just think if he can get to that point there’s got to be some level of positivity, and to get there he needs to keep winning.”
Only way out
It is far easier said than done but if Beale manages to string together a run of wins that covers the next 10 or 11 weeks he will likely stay where he is.
There pressure will be pretty unbearable throughout if one slip up potentially costs him his job that whole time, but if the board didn’t remove the 43-year-old immediately after the previous Old Firm defeat on 3 September then they aren’t likely to when he is winning.
It is three from three so far, although the manner of the two league outings hasn’t done anything to convince fans that have already made their minds up.
He may be afforded some dropped points in Europe as long as he picks up enough to get out of the group, but the writing will be on the wall if the gap to the top of the SPFL gets any bigger.
Scraping results in the way Rangers did against Motherwell, who were admittedly above the Gers heading into that game, is good enough on paper but doesn’t inspire confidence that the run can keep going.
And if key men continue to be ruled out by injury then the task is only going to get harder, but with the League Cup quarter final this week there is sure to be a lot of attention on the possibility of a first trophy for Beale.
He, as well as John Bennett and the board, may well have in their heads that getting over the hump of securing maiden silverware could prove the spark that finally gets this reign firing.
It well prove to be but there is a long way to go before that is even on the horizon and the pressure isn’t letting up right now.
In other Rangers news, David Martindale has issued a Gers fans “guarantee” heading into the Ibrox clash.