Michael Beale needs ‘floating voters’ or Rangers board will be ‘forced’ into sack decision – Chris Jack
The Rangers board “will be forced into acting” on Michael Beale’s future if he doesn’t win over fans who are currently undecided on him, according to Chris Jack.
The journalist wrote in his Rangers Review analysis of Tuesday’s press conference (26 September), carried out by assistant Neil Banfield, that the Gers boss must “sway those floating voters” who have yet to give up on him or “the weight of public perception will be too great a burden”.
The Light Blues were booed off after the 1-0 win over Motherwell on Sunday, with the manager continuing to face questions over his job since the Old Firm derby defeat on 3 September.
With a Viaplay Cup quarter final at Ibrox against Livingston on Wednesday Beale will know he has to add to his three-game winning streak.
Celtic are already out of the competition so it is increasingly seen as compulsory for the Ibrox boss to lift his first trophy or he will go.
Lame duck
Rightly or wrongly it is going to be difficult for Beale to fight on as it is against the vocal proportion of the fanbase that have long since had enough of him.
But while he keeps winning, however unconvincingly, it seems likely that John Bennett and the board will be unwilling to make a change after backing him in the transfer market this summer.
The worsening injury crisis – Rabbi Matondo was revealed by Banfield to be out for six weeks – is a mitigating factor at present, but can’t account for struggles that have been in evidence since the opening day defeat to Kilmarnock.
There is a feeling of delaying the inevitable while the conversation and the atmosphere around the club remains continually focused on Beale’s job.
But if he just keeps getting results then he can feasibly save himself long enough to shift that public perception.
That now has to include a League Cup win at Hampden on 17 December followed by a derby victory on 30 December, otherwise his record outside of the biggest games will mean nothing.
Anything less and he is likely to be replaced, although it would mean yet another managerial change and a worrying cycle developing at Ibrox.
In other Rangers news, Andy Walker has delivered an “absolutely brutal” verdict on Beale’s future amid “disgust” directed at him.