Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Celtic v Rangers - Celtic Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - April 8, 2023 Rangers manager Michael Beale before the match REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
Gary Keown has delivered another brilliant attack on the cheap chat of Micky Beale.
While those invited to his media conferences come away with a choice of stories to go on it seems that no context is ever applied to the weekly contradictions.
Whether it is transfer budgets, assessments of the current squad or offering players contracts whatever is said one week is liable to be turned upside down the next time that Beale explains the fings that he is finking about.
Boosting his win ratio might appeal to a sympathetic chairman or CEO in the lower reaches of English football but routinely losing to Celtic is starting to get through to some Ibrox fans.
After years of media neglect Beale can’t help himself from talking but with so much change going on inside Ibrox he might need to start checking over his shoulder to see what opportunistic managerial candidates are sitting in the Ibrox Directors Box.
Keown doesn’t hold back, in the Daily Mail he writes:
IF Michael Beale told you the bluebells were blue, you’d head out into the garden for a nosey just to check. The problem for the Rangers manager right now, though, is that, judging by the events of the week just gone, the Ibrox club appear to be entering an era in which actions will be expected to speak louder than words, where end product tops endless flannel.
That’s not good when your speciality — to date, at least — has very much been the latter rather than the former.
Right from the get-go, Beale has never looked like the type of character needed as manager at Ibrox. Last weekend’s latest Old Firm defeat to Celtic in the Scottish Cup semi-final only reinforced that view.
He has no option other than to play with the cards he’s got, but did anyone expect anything other than the complete no-shows delivered by Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent? These guys are empty jerseys. Their time at the club is over. Why on earth is Beale still picking them?
Not that long ago, he was keen on both staying. On Friday, he was more or less conceding they’re on the way out, having been offered nothing in terms of new deals. Plus ca change. Everything with this fellow looks built on shifting sands. I mean, where do you start?
When he came in the door, he was at pains to point out the squad did not need a rebuild. ‘Revamp is a better word than rebuild,’ he said. Nine of the 11 who started recently against St Mirren would be staying, he said. Now, all of a sudden, it is a rebuild. And not just any old rebuild. It’s Berlin 1945, the biggest reconstruction job in history.
After the Viaplay Cup final loss to Celtic, he spoke of operating ‘against the odds’ and having to turn round a squad ‘on not huge finance’. A matter of weeks later, he’s out claiming his quotes were taken out of context and that he has the best budget of a Rangers boss in years.
It goes on and on. There are signs the penny may finally have dropped. He lacked his usual vim when meeting the media on Friday. Whether it was caution or resignation is open to question.
On Friday Beale mentioned how the goalposts have moved, ominously Keown highlighted how the Chairman, Managing Director and Sporting Director that recruited Beale are no longer at the club.
If the pressure gets too much for John Bennett or James Bisgrove they could always bring in a manager that is their own choice.
Beale is two defeats away from the Pedro treatment, with or without caravans and barking dogs or arguing with fans from a bush in Luxembourg.
What rubbish…if Beale told them bluebells were Red they would write it without question. Let alone go into the garden to check.
exactly the same club lie is proof of that and the failure of the gutless media to call it out.
JUST IGNORE THEM AND ENJOY THE BANTER YEARS TO COME
No, ALL the SMSM accepted everything Beale said without question.
We all saw what an easy ride Beale got when he returned to Ibrox:
not quite ‘moonbeams’, but he certainly talked a good game.
And the SMSM copy/pasters talked him up as a brilliant coach, now manager.
We’ve all seen this movie – on a loop – at Ibrox:
if more churnalists start having a pop at Beale, it’s because the Blue Room has
decided the current manager is surplus to requirements.
Even Keevins has got his crayons out today to scribble negatively about Beale.
Great stuff. 🙂
I reckon his days could be numbered with the moves behind the scenes. They’ll be looking around at who can do well with minimal resources and will see somebody like (for example) Robinson down the road at St Mirren who has taken no-hopers into the top six (including a win over Celtic) and has a track record which features taking a Motherwell team which cost about £11 to Cup Finals and into Europe (for one preliminary round), and looking at this stereotypical EastEnders reject sitting in their dugout and talking inane drivel at every press conference and thinking “Hmmmmmm”.
Another possibility is that season ticket uptake has been abysmal over there and even sacking the manager will help, hence the start of briefing hacks against him……
He couldn’t even say “Celtic”, when in his post match interview he said ” the league table doesn’t lie, congrats to “them”.
I hate this guy more than Gerard. All he does is throw snide remarks every time he is talking about Celtic. He isn’t a big club manager by any means.
Wait till next year when Celtic are the most successful team in the world