Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Rangers v Celtic - Ibrox, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - September 3, 2023 Rangers manager Michael Beale reacts REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
Micky Beale has been given a vote of confidence from John Bennett with the rider that he is surviving game by game.
Douglas Park and Stewart Robertson were sucked in by the charm offensive of the former QPR boss who went through a Social Media tick list to take the brogues from Giovanni van Bronckhorst just under a year ago.
Bennett has replaced Park as Chairman which allows him to distance himself from the bungling manager, no one inside Ibrox will be unaware of the levels of hostility aimed at Beale who celebrated his birthday on Monday.
At the final whistle on Sunday Beale raced down the tunnel out of sight while James Tavernier led his team-mates around the pitch to take the abuse and derision of their loyal fans.
After a dismal August tumbled into September Beale needs a run of emphatic victories through the rest of the month with Real Betis, Motherwell and Aberdeen scheduled to visit Ibrox to play on the fraught relationship between manager and fans.
Keith Jackson’s knowledge of financial matters in and around Motherwell isn’t the greatest but he has a long track record of relaying the message from a variety of regimes inside Ibrox.
In the Daily Record he explains:
Rangers chairman John Bennett will resist calls to sack Michael Beale during the international break despite the outpouring of fan fury following Sunday’s Old Firm defeat.
Record Sport understands Bennett is reluctant to be dragged into the ongoing bloodlust as the clamour grows for him to deliver the head of Beale on the back of a humbling Champions League exit in Eindhoven and a crushing derby loss to Celtic.
But while Bennett is determined to give Beale the benefit of the doubt in the short term, the Ibrox hierarchy are unlikely to allow the error-prone start to Beale’s first full season in charge to continue indefinitely.
Which means the increasingly beleaguered boss will have to deliver an immediate upturn in results when the campaign restarts with an away trip to face St Johnstone in the league in 10 days’ time.
Beale then faces a Europa League visit from Real Betis before another home game against Motherwell in the top flight on September 23 and a League Cup quarter final against Livingston at Ibrox four days later.
Translated that means losing further ground to Celtic or an adverse result in either cup competition and Beale is back on the jobs market.
Overnight reaction to this story appears to have increased hostility towards Beale with fans asking what Bennett is waiting for.
A year ago van Bronckhorst was inbetween defeats from Celtic and Ajax. After a break for state mourning he picked up where he left off with a 3-0 home win from Napoli and had his Pay Off banked in time to pay for his Christmas shopping.
Real Betis are in seventh place in La Liga with seven points from four matches with wins over Villarreal and Real Vallecano as well as a home draw with Atletico Madrid.
I particularly like the use of the word “bungling” in this article. I’ll be using that in any interaction with bluenoses I have today. Very few seem to be speaking to me this week though, and the few who are pretty much now agree with our assessment of him – he’s proved to be another fantasist of limited tactical ability in the Caixinha mould who ought not to have been let loose unsupervised with the chequebook given the absolute dross he’s signed.
If they could afford to sack Beale financially , he’d be Joe the toff …yesterday ! Every single game until the Winter at least ,shall be like a pressure cooker atmosphere for Mick Beale ! The climate will be TOXIC ! If anyone thought that there was stress and tension leading up to Sunday’s Glasgow derby for the Rangers coach , will soon realise that game was a kick about on the holiday beach compared to what’s coming ….
The sevs change managers more than their average fan changes their underwear, and that’s only the women.
Manky dumbass gullibillies.