BBC Sportscene pundit issues ‘enormous’ Michael Beale sack verdict after Rangers loss to Aberdeen at Ibrox
Michael Beale is under “enormous pressure” now at Rangers after being beaten 3-1 at home by Aberdeen, according to Neil McCann.
The former Gers man said live on BBC Sportscene Saturday night (30 September) that both the manager and his players will be aware of that fact after losing a game they should have been “out of sight” in, so Beale will be “under no illusions” about his predicament.
The Light Blues boss had put together a run of four victories following the defeat to Celtic on 3 September, although without building much currency with the supporters, but it came crashing down against the Dons at a time when defeat has already been tipped to cost him his job.
McCann was asked by Steven Thompson how much pressure Beale was under and said (13m 30s): “Enormous pressure, let’s not be kidded.
“Michael will be aware of that. Every Rangers player sitting in that dressing room after the game will be aware that they’ve done their bit to heap pressure on themselves and their manager.
“They should have been out of sight today with the chances that they had. Aberdeen were always coming to Glasgow to sit behind the ball, be horrible to play against, try and be robust and see out 25-30 minutes to try and turn that Ibrox crowd, add pressure to the Rangers side, and it worked a treat.
“Michael will be under no illusions sitting there this evening, knowing that result will put the pressure on him.”
Matter of time?
The expectation outside of the Rangers board room was that Beale was buying himself some time by continuing to win games, but anything less would likely end his time as manager.
Falling seven points behind a Celtic side, which is itself some way short of Ange Postecoglou’s treble-winners from last term, before the end of September would be grounds for dismissal alone in the eyes of some.
But on top of a comprehensive failure to reach the Champions League group stages, and with the performances not suggesting much improvement is around the corner, it would certainly count as a surprise at this stage for him to still be in the dug-out for the Europa League game on Thursday.
But, having not made the decisive move in the immediate wake of the Dons defeat it presumably means one of two things for John Bennett and the Rangers board – either that they are still prepared to give Beale time, or they are given themselves time to sound out replacements.
With the atmosphere around the current manager as it is, and with successive home matches ending to the sound of loud discontent from the stands, they surely have been getting an idea of what is available as a contingency plan already.
One more defeat was tipped to end Beale’s reign as manager and it has now arrived, so if it doesn’t lead to his exit it is difficult to say how far the club are prepared to stick it out.
Having shown a few shoots of recovery in winning four on the bounce those have been trampled on decisively with a miserable home defeat.
In other Rangers news, Graham Spiers says “Beale is going to be sacked” following the result at Ibrox on Saturday.