*record scratch.

Yep, that’s Michael Beale. Not even 12 months after being hired as the predecessor to replace Gio, he himself is also needing to be replaced.

Bet you are wondering how it got to this. Being booed off the park after a hammering by Aberdeen….

Well, you’re maybe not wondering. We have seen it unfold right in front of our eyes since pre-season. The signs were there as to why Beale shouldn’t be here.

Micheal Beale leaves Rangers as our 18th manager, with a win rate of 78.57%. The second-highest of ANY Rangers manager ever.

This is probably the best example of ‘you can’t always use stats’ though. On paper, decent. However, Beale has arguably only won ONE important meaningful game in a calendar year. That coming 2 weeks ago v Real Betis at Ibrox.

Now despite the Aberdeen result costing Beale his job, he was on borrowed time. The game that really put him on a shoogly peg was the Old Firm defeat against a limp, injury-ravaged Other Mob™️. That defeat was inexcusable. You never set up to defend like that at home, unless you are playing a Real Madrid side who are in good form. Also don’t get me started on the back 5/7 at home to Motherwell….. Also unforgivable… PSV? Yeah. That too.

Now Rangers managers in recent years have been hung out to dry a bit. There hasn’t been a massive transfer kitty. The last time we actually invested and improved was during the 55 season. You can argue as well that the reason for that was due to the club believing that Morelos was gone and that they would recoup money from his sale. A blessing in disguise as we probably wouldn’t have pushed on as we did without the squad depth.

Now you can argue the club didn’t really invest in Beale as we almost broke even on clear-out sales and that money has been used to reinvest. I don’t buy that. He still had that money to spend. No matter where it came from.

Either way, Beale has spent a lot of money on players this season. Players that have looked good from YouTube clips etc., however, lacked in the out-and-out goal-scoring department. The frustrating thing also is that, in reality, they have been bought to be played out-of-position. Not sure that was part of the ‘grand plan’, either way, it’s not good.

Now at a club like ours, we need to go after ‘rough diamonds’, who have ‘something’ and don’t cost the earth. I’m all for that. However, it does seem like we are lacking adequate coaching for us to mould these players into better finishers/passers.

We also have to be honest, some of these players have been purchased around the higher end of market value (for a club like us). If we are buying players for higher value then we have to ensure we are going to be getting value for money.

Now am I writing these players off? No. Danilo looks great and I think will be great for us when used appropriately. You know like starting games and being our main striker. Something Beale didn’t seem to like doing, then in his first start he scores a great goal and is stretchered off injured, probably due to some rabid curse that we have with well-performing players. Now the fans could see he needed to start games, however, Beale didn’t. A late sub appearance here and there. £6,000,000 was spent on what appeared to be a benchwarmer. Someone who we could all tell needed to start.

Another of our better performers is Sima. A player we don’t even own. That says it all really.

Lammers and Dessers could become better players in a system where everyone knows what they are doing. Recent images of Beale on the touchline showed him shaking his head in disbelief. Maybe the players just didn’t get what he wanted to achieve tactically. Hell, if we as fans can barely understand, how do you think the players feel?

Beale leaves behind a legacy of failure. which is sad. I believed in him. I believed in his philosophy. The man lived and breathed football, tactics and systems. Highly thought of at Liverpool’s academy. Done fairly well at QPR, yes it was early days I know. He was the main target for Wolves, which he turned down as he told QPR’s DOF Les Ferdinand when appointed, that the only reason he would leave is if Rangers came in for him. That was the caveat. He kept his word, despite how QPR fans feel about him. Was speaking to the Rangers board while Gio was still in charge a bit ‘snidey’? Possibly. Have to be honest, it wasn’t an issue before, only an issue now since he has departed.

No matter how you feel about Beale he will make a superb number 2 somewhere. He with Gerrard, helped us win 55 and stop the unthinkable ‘10’. I thank him for that. I hope he takes this time to ‘take stock’ and maybe look into some media training as his press conferences started to contradict each other. Plus he would let comments from certain pundits ‘get to him’ a bit like when Chris Sutton made some comments and he bit back in a presser. Ignore it. Block out the noise. Make the team do the talking on the pitch.

Now there have been big changes and a reshuffle at the club since Beale came in. Bennett and Bisgrove need to focus on not just a new manager, (a manager who can’t be a project btw) but a Director Of Football. This could make or break their tenure. They need to get this right otherwise I do feel some fans will walk. They may talk about making lots of revenue in some areas and are ‘best in class’ in others. Well, let us focus on being the best in a footballing sense as all that other stuff will follow if we are. Let’s hope a decent manager is brought in and can bring us silverware. Is that too much for fans of a big club like us to ask?

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