Michael Beale Rangers Q&A in full: Injuries, transfers and McGregor

Michael, can you give me your thoughts on tonight's match?  

Yeah, firstly, a fantastic night for Alan McGregor. I want to thank Eddie and his staff and the players for coming up and playing the game. Obviously, the amount of fans that came up from Newcastle as well, I thought it was a top preseason game. We've gone from playing a Third Division Bundesliga team behind closed doors to coming here tonight and playing at Ibrox in a packed game - and it was a real game from start to finish. I thought they showed their quality. We were a bit slow starting, but after that I was pleased with elements of the game. We created good moments. You can see we've still got heavy legs. But that game gives us a lot of feedback. I think it will make training real because now you've played against a real team. There's no point playing the lesser opponents, so we've tried to pick really strong competitive opponents throughout preseason to make the games real to help us prepare. We're still a month away from the kickoff. 

Tonight, Ianis Hagi was playing noticeably deeper. Is that something you are going to look at moving forward? 

Well, yeah. I think sometimes when we're playing domestically, we get a lot of the ball and we don't want our most technical players facing our goal. So they can come from deep. We've seen it with Todd Cantwell. Kieran Dowell's got a fantastic passing range. Ianis has got the same thing. You can see Abdullah can really motor and he'll move down the side of defenders. Cyriel Dessers will give us the same. So you'll see Cyriel at the weekend with Kemar Roofe and maybe Tom Lawrence. Maybe I'll have to hold him back, but he's chomping at the bit to be involved at the weekend as well. What I would say is there's a lot of competition for places. I still want the squad to be tighter this year and I think games like tonight give us great feedback. There's a reason why they've done so well the last year or so and got into the Champions League and I think we're a good team, but I think we're playing against a very, very good team tonight. 

Transfer rumours abound about Danilo. Is he a player you are interested in? 

He is a player that we like. I think a lot of people like him. He's not the only forward we're talking to. That's the one that seems to have been let out more in public, but there's no news on it. Cifuentes is a player that we like too, and we're hoping that one can be one that we moved on. I think we need to bring one more midfielder in. He's powerful. He works the corridor. He can play deeper or he can play as an 8 and make the box as well, but until he's here, these things can take twists and turns. 

Is it important to have players in before the first game? 

Yeah, definitely. You can see we did a lot of our work early this summer. As I say, the boys have only been back for two weeks. That's the first game in front of the public if you like, and I was pleased. I thought it was nice for Sam to score. You can see what Sima’s going to bring, unbelievable work ethic and speed and but he's not going to be a main number 9. He can play next to a no.9 but that's going to be Cyril's job and Kemar's job and anyone else that we bring in for that position. 

How many more transfers do you need? 

There’s no number on it. The market is moving for every manager quite quickly. Agents are calling every day. We have some real set targets and we managed to go and get that done. No one wants to move as quick as Rangers do sometimes as well. You know, some clubs are just back into pressason during the last week, so I'm really pleased with the work we've done. We're ahead of schedule. Also, we'll see some outs in the coming days as well. There's been quite a few inquiries for Glen Kamara. We gave him an extended break due to his international stuff in the summer and unfortunately, he's been ill the last few days so he didn't come to Germany with us. He's due to return to training in the coming days and the speculation will be ongoing. 

What about Scott Wright? 

This summer, Scotty has had one or two inquiries. I think Scott's at an age where he wants to go and play regularly. I can't guarantee that and he'll have to fight for his minutes here like everybody else. I'm not willing to guarantee anyone that they're going to play, and I think he's at an age where he's good enough to play and he probably feels that he spent a lot of time here trying to get into the team. So we're off tomorrow. It's a rest day, so it gives him a chance to speak to one or two people and make some decisions for himself, but there's nothing that's guaranteed on that one. 

Is there an injury update? 

Leon King got the injury when we were away in Germany. It's not as bad as first feared. So, we think he'll be back in four to five weeks. Back playing that is, with training within maybe four weeks so. We've had the best-case scenario with that, we had to scan it immediately to see if there was a break. There wasn't. We've rescanned it and it's the better news for us, so I'm delighted with that. Tom Lawrence returned to training the day we got back from Germany. So, he trained with the team on Sunday. Tonight was too soon and obviously, the amount of time he's been out. Kemar trained from the mid part of being in Germany and he looks in good shape. Cyriel was late arriving, so he was slightly behind everybody else, hence not involved tonight. Connor Goldson is still scheduled till the end of the month, so he'll make the start of the season if all goes to plan. Young Adam Devine in the game in Germany on Friday, just felt a slight problem in his knee, so he didn't want to take a risk. Dujon will return to training, I believe even before the weekend or the start of next. 

READ MORE: Rangers vs Newcastle instant analysis as Allan McGregor waves farewell

So injury-wise, everyone is fit? 

Yeah, we've had a really positive summer. I think the break has done us good. I think we've managed everybody really well. It's been a bespoke offseason, even a bespoke preseason in terms of no one-size-fits-all and listen, I don't want to say that we've got a clean bill of health because you know what happens in football, but we're moving in a good direction. 

How does Allan McGregor rank among the greats?  

There'll be a lot better people than me to judge that. He's been the greatest goalie at Rangers since I've been here in 2018, so that's a much easier one to answer. But I think there's one other goalkeeper where the great debate will go on in many bars and many households for years to come. All I would say is he's a modern-day legend. He's got a highlights reel for the ages. And he's been fantastic for me. Firstly, when I was here as a coach and now as a manager, he's been a great, great player to work with in terms of standard and work ethic. We're the same age, so I would say that it's good time for him to have a rest and think about the future, but he knows the doors here are open and I've said that to him. Don't be a stranger. We're a club where there's a lot of talk about the history of the club played by players on the pitch and so those people are always welcome. The doors are always open to allow them to come in, to share their advice and their ideas and Allan’s now certainly one of those guys.