Inside Michael Beale’s Rangers departure as reasons for sacking revealed

Rangers have parted ways with Michael Beale following a desperately poor start to the season and a lack of impact from their newly acquired signings.

An opening day Scottish Premiership defeat to Kilmarnock had left Beale’s Rangers chasing Celtic from the get-go. Any more slip-ups after that could not be tolerated as Brendan Rodgers’ side eased into pole position.

But Rangers were then demolished by PSV in their Champions League play-off round second leg, losing 5-1 in Eindhoven having held the Dutch side to a 2-2 draw at Ibrox in the first leg. It meant Rangers would drop into the Europa League, kissing goodbye to a potential £30million cash injection that participation in the flagship European competition would bring.

Four days later and Rangers would be beaten by Celtic in the first Old Firm of the season, rounding out a devastating week for the blue half of Glasgow.

And yet every Rangers fan held onto the hope that somehow the season could turn around and, perhaps, another journey through the Europa League would beckon. But the poor performances and the lingering doubt never fully lifted. Fans became frustrated, further convinced that things were not going to get better.

A lack of identity, zero in the way of team cohesion and extremely poor individual performances piled the pressure on manager Beale. The former Queens Park Rangers boss arrived with a promise to deliver exciting, attacking football that would see the handbrake off. He seemed to leave the team in park when it came to tactics and team selection.

Question marks over new signings

The Champions League exit and defeat to a weakened Celtic side had left a very bad taste in the mouths of Rangers board members, who had backed Beale with a healthy summer transfer kitty. Rangers spent nearly £16m on new players over the summer but there have been major question marks over the quality of his new additions.

Cyriel Dessers has been unimpressive since his arrival from Cremonese with sources close to the club believing he is not strong enough to lead the line. So far, he looks no improvement on the former striking options of Alfredo Morelos and Antonio Colak.

Ryan Kent is another departure whose loss has not been adequately covered by the new options. Sam Lammers, meanwhile, has also had his critics due to a poor conversion rate and lack of goals.

A lack of wide attacking options was a criticism that Rangers faced time and time again, and if it wasn’t for Pendikspor being unable to front up a fee for Scott Wright, they would have been depleted even further with Rabbi Matondo and Abdallah Sima the only other options on the flanks.

Beale’s way or no way

With the departure of sporting director Ross Wilson, Beale took responsibility for the summer’s transfer business, working alongside chief executive James Bisgrove and chairman John Bennet to refresh a Rangers squad in desperate need of new life.

Beale himself had a hands-on approach in deals, taking calls from agents and setting up meetings to sell Rangers to his targets, playing the role of director of football as well as first-team manager, with sources disclosing that the club had concerns about Beale taking too much on.

A source claimed “it’s Beale’s way or no way” when it came to signing players, with homegrown talents becoming increasingly aware they were not favoured by the boss. There was a sense around the squad of favouritism toward English talent and a lack of opportunities for younger players.

Another source expressed surprise by the decisions taken in the market by Beale and worried for the side for the season ahead because he knew that the players signed were not good enough to compete with Celtic.

Lack of cohesion

Some of the new arrivals have also struggled to integrate with the squad; there is a lack of camaraderie in the dressing room between some of the longer-serving players and the new men arriving last summer.

The senior contingent would eventually become an element that Beale was challenged by as results and performances stuttered and concerns within the group began to grow.

In the last weeks of the 43-year-old’s tenure, the leaders of his side lost patience and faith with their manager and began to voice concerns at the way things were being run.

Beale, who was earning £500,000 per year, leaves after being told that he had not matched up to the club’s expectations and ambitions. Rangers’ players were informed of the Beale departure on a group Zoom call on Sunday.

In total, Rangers are understood to be paying around £1m to remove Beale and his full coaching team – Neil Banfield, Damian Matthew, Harry Watling and Jack Ade – from their positions at Ibrox.

A new interim team, headed up by club legend Steven Davis, has been installed by the board as they try to reintegrate some Rangers principles back into the club.