Michael Beale has been a name linked with the Rangers manager job ever since Steven Gerrard started to attract attention from England after winning an emphatic Scottish Premiership title.
This speculation has only intensified after Giovanni van Bronckhorst was given his marching orders with the QPR manager consistently topping the bookies charts.
When he was linked with the Wolverhampton Wanderers job just a few weeks ago, Beale spoke passionately about loyalty and commitment so it would be a surprise if he was keen to jump ship so soon, however, speaking to The Daily Record, Les Ferdinand has revealed that he wouldn’t stand in the former Gers first team coach’s way if he wanted to return to Ibrox:
“I haven’t spoken to Michael or Rangers about this. But I expected Michael’s name would be mentioned for the role at Rangers because he did such a good job while he was up there working with Steven Gerrard. I don’t want to have to fight to keep anyone at QPR. I want people who want to be here. That’s the only way we can move forward.
“If they want to be somewhere else, that’s what they’re going to do. We’d have to have a conversation. It’s not that I’d be happy to have it but I only want people at the football club who want to be here.”
File this one under 2 + 2 = 5. Just because Ferdinand wouldn’t stand in his way doesn’t mean that Beale will either be offered, or take, the job.
From a logical perspective, having sacked Gio, you would think that we have already sounded out our next manager and are close to appointing them, Ferdinand claims that nobody has approached him or Beale. It would be a bit of a gamble to sack one manager without having another lined up.
We all know this board can be less than competent when it comes to making big decisions though.