Michael Beale stripped of Jack Butland credit at Rangers as transfer reveal emerges
Michael Beale has been stripped of the last bit of credit he held for his time as Rangers manager after it has been revealed he wasn’t the mastermind behind the signing of Jack Butland.
The Athletic reported on Friday (20 October) that the English keeper had been on the Gers’ radar since before the former boss joined the club in November 2022.
The signing of the 30-year-old was thought to be Beale’s biggest success during his unconvincing time at Ibrox, but on the back of his sacking on 1 October, he has now also had that taken away from him.
Although it is only one deal, it does make his time in Glasgow look far worse given the players he did bring in over the summer.
Beale was provided with pretty much free reign to make the signings he wanted and, based on the first few months of the season, that was a major on the board’s part.
Long gone are the days when managers are given sole responsibility for bringing in their own players as so much data and analysis is now involved at the top level.
Rather than the signing of Butland, Beale will be remembered for splashing the cash on the likes of Cyriel Dessers, who has so far failed to live up to expectations at Ibrox.
The capture of the keeper appears to have been planned out when the Gers had a better structure in place, with former sporting director Ross Wilson having a say in transfers.
It was a shrewd move to bring in the Englishman after his contract expired with Crystal Palace, but it makes complete sense that the Light Blues had been monitoring his situation long before approaching to sign him.
The club knew that they would probably have to bring in a new keeper at the end of the season and they would have been searching around for the best possible deal throughout the campaign.
After sitting on the bench for the best part of two years at Selhurst Park and then on loan at Manchester United last season, Butland was desperate for first-team football.
That is exactly what he has had at Ibrox so far and he’s completely backed up why Rangers were monitoring him more than nine months before he eventually signed.
The keeper has been superb in the early stages of this campaign, having kept seven clean sheets in 16 games, with five of those coming in the eight SPFL matches, making him easily the Gers’ player of the season so far.
He will now be hoping to keep up that excellent form under new manager Philippe Clement, who will no doubt have been impressed by Butland when he’s been scouring through footage of recent games.
If the Light Blues are to achieve anything this season, then the keeper will surely have a big part to play in that success.
In other Rangers news, Ferguson was wowed by the result of a Gers grilling during their search for a new manager.