New weekly contributor Iain King won the award for Scottish Sports News Writer of the Year three times in succession and has published six books on the game, including the biography of Andy Goram, before pursuing new career interests. After a season as CEO at Airdrieonians, Iain, who also managed Lowland League sides East Kilbride FC and BSC Glasgow to trophies, emigrated to Canada. He now works full-time in the game as a Regional Director of Soccer Development. 

Why is Michael Beale held in such high esteem within the coaching world?

I have heard that question posed many times in the last few days as the 42-year-old Londoner edges closer to replacing Giovanni van Bronckhorst and becoming the 18th man to manage Rangers.

Many ask for hard evidence that Queen’s Park Rangers head coach Beale has a right to even be in the conversation.

He has, after all, only handled 21 English Championship games as the main man in a technical area, winning nine and guiding QPR to seventh in the table after a mini-slump before the World Cup hiatus.

I fully understand the scepticism.

Yet when the axe brutally fell on the van Bronckhorst reign after just one year in charge my gut instinct was always that sporting director Ross Wilson must move for the brains behind the club’s 55th title win as his replacement.

Yes, other credible candidates such as Sean Dyche are an easier sell but for me, Steven Gerrard’s one-time Auchenhowie training ground assistant is the right choice.

Indeed, I believe allowing Beale to leave the building in the first place when Gerrard jumped ship mid-season for Aston Villa in a decision he lived to regret was a monumental error.

The manager’s successor was staring Wilson and the Board right in the face.

Van Bronckhorst’s pragmatism and tactical nous took Rangers all the way to the Europa League Final and within a bounce of the ball of history.

Yet the backdrop of bloodless scratched-out domestic wins and, more importantly, gutless Old Firm surrenders eventually did for the cultured and likeable Dutchman.

When I made my living for over two decades as a football writer in the maelstrom of the Glasgow madness Giovanni was a class act as a player.

Polite, thoughtful and interesting to interview. He never talked in big headlines but he was a joy to deal with, a gentleman.

As a coach, though, Gio like his countryman Dick Advocaat in the death throes of his time in charge before him underestimated the importance of a connection with the fans who are the heart and soul of Ibrox.

When van Bronckhorst lost that critical bond his days were numbered despite the European run and a laudable extra-time Scottish Cup triumph over Hearts when he dragged an excellent performance out of the dog-tired soldiers of Seville.

So now Rangers stand on the precipice of a landmark decision for the club after all the pain of the last decade and the financial mismanagement that sent them plunging into the basement of Scottish football.

And again the question will be asked.

Why should Michael Beale occupy an office held by such legends as the late, great Walter Smith?

My answer having analysed his rise in the coaching world is summed up in one word. Identity.

In short, Beale gets Rangers. Like it or not, Celtic showed the way with the appointment of passionate Australian Ange Postecoglou.

That was a move that many thought was panic stations after they missed out on the now Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe.

Yet Postecoglou understands the club he works for and the way its fans want to see their club play.

Rangers have looked like a team whose footballing DNA has become so scrambled they’ve forgotten who they are.

Beale can bring that back because he is a master coach who at their height helped give Gerrard’s team an intoxicating identity both in and out of possession of the ball.

These days I earn my living in Canada as a Regional Director of Soccer Development on the beautiful island of Cape Breton.

I’m a UEFA A Licence coach who once won a couple of trophies in the Scottish Lowland League and I’m no expert in my second career on this planet. I know my place.

Yet I feel I can give an insight as to why many of my fellow coaches believe in Michael Beale so much.

In January 2017, two months before I made the leap to emigrate to Canada, I read a story about a former Chelsea and Liverpool Academy coach who had taught himself Portuguese and flown out to Brazil to be No.2 to Sao Paulo boss Rogerio Ceni.

It blew my mind, that takes guts. We Brits don’t typically do stuff like that, I found it inspiring.

So I began to follow Beale’s fortunes, his book of 60 Small-Sided Games lies on my office desk today and I have pilfered sessions from it more times than I care to admit.

I love the way he thinks about the game, he has a clarity of vision built on consistent and simple messages.

He knows how to win players’ buy-in by constructing a way to play that they will enjoy.

Does that sound like something this muddled mess of a Rangers team might benefit from?

When the chance came through the forward-thinking presences of Gary Gibson and Craig Mulholland to be a coaching student with my clubmates in the Rangers Online Academy it was the presence of Beale that drew me to the five-day seminar.

OUT of Possession. Regain, Redirect, Restrict, Ruthless.

IN Possession. Construct, Control, Create, Convert.

It was a peek behind the curtain and Michael was extremely open in sharing his vision of creating a common way for all Rangers teams to play from the under-13s to the first team.

Beale, then riding the crest of a wave after winning 55, was understated yet hugely impressive.

I remember thinking then, that’s a Rangers manager.

Is appointing Michael Beale a gamble? You bet it is but right now it’s one I believe the club have to take.

Otherwise, they might just be missing out on getting in on the ground level of the rise of a truly elite-level coach.

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