There is a small elephant in the room over Michael Beale’s announcement as Rangers manager and nothing to do with his competence as a coach or his ability to get the best out of players.
Only a few weeks ago, Beale was tipped to move to the Premier League and join Wolverhampton Wanderers, saying at the time when he rejected the job, via the Birmingham Mail:
“I wanted to prove to people that I could be a manager. It is a difference in the job, leading from the front or being in the background as assistant coach, and this period of time here, I was really enjoying. And it’s important I have a body of work that people can look at and see. Also, integrity and things like that are really important to me.”
I felt at the time that Beale went in a bit too hard in terms of why he wanted to stay at QPR – also saying he was “all in” – especially when he was already being heavily tipped to replace Giovanni van Bronckhorst at Rangers. All it would have taken is a “I’m flattered but happy where I am” line and nobody would really bat an eyelid about him coming to Ibrox.
Matt Dickinson at The Times posted a scathing comment on Twitter – “Loyalty, integrity, blah blah blah” – which kind of sums up how the English media have reacted to the appointment and it may be that Beale needs to address the issue in his first press statement/interview, not that it matters to Rangers fans. Loyalty long since disappeared from football.
After all, we’ve got a highly rated young manager in place – do I look happy?
I remember nobody batting an eyelid when Gerrard left the week before a cup semi final and not long after saying how happy he was at Rangers. Short memories