Every new manager wants money to spend when they arrive at a new job, if they say otherwise, they are lying and Michael Beale is no different.
He’s in the enviable position of already knowing most of the Rangers squad though so it shouldn’t take long to assess what holes he thinks need to be filled and what contracts he is happy to see run out.
Steven Gerrard was back by the board until Covid-19 and failure to qualify for the group stages of the Champions League hit hard and Giovanni van Bronckhorst was also given funds to spend, however, it still pales into insignificance compared to what it’s getting thrown about across the city.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Beale admits that he has spoken to the Ibrox hierarchy about potential transfers but that the squad will be improved naturally when injured players return:
“The guarantees I have are the same I think as the last two managers if players are identified within the budget the board has always supported.
“The position the club is in now is a stronger position but what I’ve asked is, let me look at the squad, let me see who’s here, let me look in their eyes, but there is definitely an opportunity for the right players for the right positions.
“We have players like Tom Lawrence and Ianis Hagi who are going to have a huge impact on our team when they are fit and well, Kemar Roofe who was top goalscorer in our title-winning season but he’s not been available.”
Roofe, Hagi and Lawrence will be like new signings if we see them regularly in the second half of the season but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t areas that need to be addressed and that Beale shouldn’t be given the chance to stamp his own authority on the team when the transfer window opens.
The timing has worked out well for him in that he has a few weeks to work with the squad and a few competitive games before the transfer window opens, hopefully, we have learned from our mistakes of last January and don’t take the same gambles – we all know the positions that need to be strengthened, fingers crossed that the “right players” are available.