In the very short term, the decision to remove Giovanni van Bronckhorst and ultimately replace him with Michael Beale is already proving to be the right call.
Either side of the international break, the record sheet reads four points out of nine in comparison to nine from nine.
The performances have not been great for obvious reasons but there are emerging signs of better things to come that will be strongly fancied to extend into a fourth game when Motherwell visit Ibrox on Wednesday. That will be the final game ahead of the Old Firm New year clash which takes on greater significance but for now there will be few complaints as the results have been delivered.
Two comeback 3-2 wins followed out by a fairly comfortable yet uninspring 1-0 has shown a variance in those victories that see Beale’s 100% record intact. In particular there was a determination, resilience and grit to get the points over Hibs and Aberdeen then the first collective start for Connor Goldson and Ben Davies in months went some way toward registering Rangers first clean sheet for the new boss.
Progress
The early signs for Beale are the right ones in terms of the return on the pitch but the same could be said for Gio. The Dutchman presided over seven consecutive Premiership wins as part of 10 unbeaten overall prior to the loss at Parkhead in February as the wheels came off in the league campaign last season. With that, talk of the ‘new manager bounce’ should be tempered as the bigger picture is much, more important.
Rangers need to show more substance in their play, as outlined by Beale but it is fair to give him time. Any potential progress can only be aided by a full squad available to him as well as smart business in the transfer window. That will be combined with hard work and diligence on the training ground from which the story of the new boss and his Rangers regime will be written.