Daily Mail reporter spells out the grim reality of Beale’s summer bargain hunt

Gary Keown of the Daily Mail has provided Ibrox fans with a lesson in joined up thinking.

There was absolutely no reason for Micky Beale to speak to daily newspapers in midweek but there was a message to get out that excluded broadcasters and fan media.

Beating Celtic on a budget screamed the back page of The Sun as they cut to the chase over the cost cutting exercise that the rookie boss will oversee in the summer.

Eighteen months ago Steven Gerrard walked away over the lack of funds, his successor Giovanni van Bronckhorst delivered a Europa League Final and Champions League qualification but no fresh funds were released after PSV Eindhoven were beaten in the Play Off round.

This summer Beale will mastermind the rebuilding programme that Ross Wilson has been avoiding for two years with all the signs being that he will have to be highly imaginative as he scrapes around the English Championship for free agents and promising starlets coming in on loan.

Spelling out the reality that is just a couple of months away Keown tells Daily Mail readers:

IT was difficult to read through the words of Rangers manager Michael Beale in midweek and not see them as part of the great dampening-down of expectation at Ibrox.

It started with MD Stewart Robertson insisting Champions League group money isn’t all it’s cracked up to be after failing to bring in any new players in the wake of qualifying.

Beale talking about getting good players for relatively little money and looking at loan deals just adds to the feeling this is a club happy it just stopped Celtic winning ten-in-a-row and not sure of what comes next.

Back in January, didn’t Beale rule out loan deals because they weren’t good for long-term welfare? Yes, he might well have been speaking purely in the context of six-month arrangements at the tail-end of a season, but is bringing people in on temporary one-year deals really much different?

Season Ticket renewals are expected at sometime in April with Commercial Guru James Bisgrove trying to plan the least damaging date for the latest raid on the blue pound linked in with an attractive offer on MyGers points for the most loyal of bears.