Trust. It’s a small word that carries huge meaning.
As a Rangers manager, you earn it by winning trophies and building a team supporters can depend upon. In recent years the lack of silverware delivered has, understandably, made the Rangers fan base a very difficult audience.
The only thing that matters at Rangers is winning, in whatever fashion possible. Everybody wants attacking football that’s pleasing to watch but ultimately, this is a results-driven industry. Nobody complains about dull, turgid victories in a title-winning season so long as shiny things arrive at the end.
Michael Beale has been given a fair bit of grace since arriving in November and for good reason. He inherited a team, and a club for that matter, that felt stale and stagnant with a playing squad that desperately required new blood.
Most would agree that Beale got the best out of a group who’d collectively lost their spark. You only need to look at the final months played out by Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent to confirm that the manager was often working within limitations.
He completed the season with a totally absent forward line but arguably, and that word is selected carefully because of how vital winning is to succeed at Ibrox, there were enough signs in the big games to suggest Rangers are on the right path if strong recruitment plays out this summer.
Simply put, you cannot legislate for missing open goals at Hampden and the level of defending witnessed at Parkhead. Box to box, Beale’s set-up, League Cup Final aside, was spot on each time.
All that is to say the manager has earned a degree of trust in trying circumstances – which leads us to the topic of the transfer window.
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Make no mistake, this is Beale’s summer and he will run with it exactly how he sees fit. The manager is the driver behind recruitment and new signings are clearly his. He's making big decisions and, rightly, will be held accountable for each new arrival's success or failure.
However, he’s earned trust in the field of recruitment too. His eye for a player has long been known, having played a key role in the identification of Calvin Bassey and Joe Aribo. It was during an Under-21 closed-door game at Ibrox that Beale flagged Bassey’s ability to then manager Steven Gerrard.
Or, look more recently at the activity in January. Both Nico Raskin and Todd Cantwell look as though they’ll be very strong players for Rangers. Admittedly the Belgian had been on the club’s radar for some time but the identification of Cantwell was by every stretch a Beale move. Look how that gamble has turned out.
All of this brings me to Sam Lammers and his imminent Ibrox arrival. £3million is a lot of money and immediately questions have been raised on Twitter feeds and message boards. With numerous Rangers fans intent on declaring that such an outlay should guarantee a recent track record of goals, goals and more goals.
“Stop buying in the big leagues, there’s plenty of bargains elsewhere”
“Oh, like where?”
“That’s not my job to find them..”
Exactly! It’s Beale's job and you either trust him or you don’t. So far, this writer is in the camp that votes in favour of entrusting Beale to rebuild this squad and revitalise this football club on the pitch.
I’m in no denial about what Lammers’ recent stats look like, but numbers don’t tell the full story or reveal all the relevant context. As my Rangers Review colleague Joshua Barrie wrote recently when scouting Lammers, Cantwell also arrived without much of a recent track record. Beale’s focus on character alongside quality ensured that was a risk worth taking.
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The manager has sat in front of each new arrival and done his due diligence. Lammers is in need of a move to realise the potential his early career promised. Success is by no means a guarantee and of course, there’s risk involved.
Beale will be held accountable for his recruitment. More than that, his success will depend on it. However, as a fanbase we wanted change and a fresh start and that’s exactly what we’re getting.
There’s enough evidence to suggest Beale knows what he’s doing and enough optimism to trust that those arriving can repay the faith.
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