With a glint in his eye and a palpable sense of enthusiasm, Michael Beale set out a bold, positive vision of what his Rangers team can become at the official press conference for his appointment as the 18th permanent manager of the club, yesterday afternoon. It was a measured yet ambitious signal of intent from a very capable football man, yet one who is only just at the fledgling stage in management.
Beale has the benefit of his previous experience at Ibrox to guide him in the weeks and months to come. This has meant a seamless transition back onto the training ground, hand in glove with the vast majority of the squad who he worked with previously as well as familiar embraces with staff behind the scenes who he already had a working relationship with. Those bonds have been renewed in recent days, as captured for good effect on RangersTV.
As much as his Rangers past is an undoubted strength and the main catalyst for his fast track into the manager role at Ibrox, it also eliminates any sense of a honeymoon period. There is no getting to know the club and settling in, that concept is obsolete this time round. Instead, the Londoner inherits a fast track to the enduring pressure and expectation at Ibrox which he publicly insists that he thrives on and views as a privilege, a by-product of working at a massive club.
With this new regime, the warmth of a popular former figure coming back also has to herald a return to winning ways, that is what matters above all and Beale delicately indicated in the Blue Room briefing that he was ready to enable change.
When asked what a Beale-led Rangers team would look like, the 42-year old let his own ideas loose in what will have been music to the ears of the supporters watching on the outside. It symbolised the differences in personality and style compared to the departed Giovanni van Bronckhorst when he stated: “I think it’s got to be on the front foot. We want to play like the big team, be exciting to watch. I think the first thing, it has to be exciting to play in on a daily basis, it’s got to be about this group now. This group is slightly different to the one last time I was here. We’ve got to take the ball and we’ve got to attack.”
“I think we will see a little variety. I’m not going to sit here now and tell you everything on my third or fourth day. The fans should look forward to seeing the team play on the 15th of December.”
Much of what was described above was noticeably absent from the dull Rangers team under Van Bronckhorst that laboured in recent months with a soft underbelly and a glaring lack of style on the pitch. If the team had been winning, it could have been described as functional but it clearly wasn’t. Failing to take care of the bread in butter in Scotland, at home to Livingston, away to St Johnstone and St Mirren highlighted this problem to a damning extent.
That won’t have been lost on Beale who beamed with superlatives talking about restoring a Rangers team to play with flair, just think of that excellent goal in the Europa League qualifier against Galatasaray at Ibrox for what the template could be. On talk of restoring a title tilt, he nimbly set the narrative: “I think the first thing to do is to get the identity on the pitch where we want it. The energy on the pitch and the right players on the pitch and start winning football games. This Christmas period will have a big part in whether we can do that or not. The most important thing now is to win the next game which is always the job here as the manager of Rangers. Win the next game and see where it takes us.”
With only two wins from the last five Premiership games, the new boss is justified to focus on the immediate priority of picking up points as well as signposting a better way to make it happen.
In the weeks and months ahead, Beale will need to get more out of the squad whilst assessing what changes will need to be made. This will be a challenge of man-management, balancing the short term with the bigger picture. He and his team will be confident of securing that bounce that often comes with a changing of the guard in football but much of that is also on the players, a fact that wasn’t shirked when he spoke about the players owning the situation and taking responsibility.
However, moving forward changes will be required. The nucleus of the squad that won the club’s 55th league title with Steven Gerrard and Beale are still around with a sense of decline prevalent. New signings are required with money to be invested wisely as well as a need for quality to move forward. Valid questions on the role of Ross Wilson remain but the new manager will need to maximise his input on new additions. For now, Beale wants to run the rule over the group he has available: “I'm in the assessing stage at the moment. I'm looking at the eyes and the energy of the squad at the moment. I need to be really honest with everybody about where they are in the squad and ensure there is clarity and then we are always looking to improve.”
There was plenty of scope for optimism and belief from the press conference but that will be tempered with reality and the extent of the task ahead in clawing back the nine-point deficit at the top of the table.
The manager declared a signal of intent to come when the team takes to the Ibrox pitch on 15 December against Hibernian and on that note.
Let’s look forward to a Rangers renewal and revival under Michael Beale.
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Every word of Michael Beale's first Rangers press conference
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