Report claims Graham Potter has rejected the chance to replace Beale at Ibrox

Graham Potter is reported to have turned down the chance to become manager at Ibrox.

It is a far fetched story on a number of levels and comes from the English edition of The Sun.

Potter is believed to have signed a deal worth close to £1m a month when he took over at Chelsea a year ago, lasting 31 matches before being sacked.

The terms of his gardening leave aren’t known but are likely to be much higher than anything on offer at Ibrox where they are congratulating themselves over spending £15m during the summer transfer window even though Micky Beale disputes the figures leaked to media outlets.

It is certainly a feel good story for bears still angry at back-to-back defeats from PSV Eindhoven and Celtic although there is virtually no chance that the Ibrox club could afford Potter and nothing to suggest that the Englishman would want to move to Ibrox where Connor Goldson, James Tavernier, John Souttar, Ridvan Yilmaz, Sam Lammers, Cyriel Dessers and Rabbi Matondo are all locked into long term contracts.

The Sun reports:

GRAHAM POTTER has turned down a return to management with Scottish side Rangers after being approached to replace under-fire Michael Beale.

Rangers have lost two of their first four Scottish Premiership games, including an Old Firm derby, and were knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers thanks to a 5-1 second-leg thumping by PSV Eindhoven.

That has led Rangers bosses to explore their options and an approach was made to Potter’s representatives.

However, the former Chelsea and Brighton boss was not interested in discussing the job.

Potter is relaxed and not keen to rush back into management, preferring to wait for the right job to come up.

Former Hamilton boss Billy Reid has been assistant to Potter at Chelsea, Brighton, Swansea and Ostersunds with that link giving the Gullible & Deluded hope of appointing a recognised manager.

Having denied a tweet last week that an approach had been made to Kevin Muscat to replace Beale some sort of denial to this story is required.

With John Bennett and James Bisgrove moving into executive positions since Beale was appointed the former QPR boss will be feeling vulnerable at the tone of coverage surrounding his job although he does have a contract that runs until 2026.

In the real world it is likely that the next managerial shortlist will include Derek McInnes, Robbie Neilson and David Martindale in a back to basics move.

The English edition of The Sun published the story at 2.01pm but at 8pm the Scottish edition hadn’t touched it.