Les Ferdinand has claimed Michael Beale was offered the Rangers job BEFORE the club turned to Giovanni van Bronckhorst but opted to follow Steven Gerrard to Aston Villa.
The Loftus Road director of football made the revelation as he discussed Beale’s departure after only a short stint in the west London club’s hotseat. Ferdinand admitted he could understand the lure of a return to Ibrox for Beale, who had enjoyed success during his three-and-a-half years in Glasgow alongside Gerrard.
Some supporters have questioned why Beale wasn’t given the chance to succeed Gerrard at the time given he was held in such high regard by the Ibrox board and Ferdinand now claims he has heard that was the case. Speaking in an interview with Loft For Words, he said: “The one thing I did know is he’d had a very good time at Rangers with Steven Gerrard, he really enjoyed it up there. I did find out afterwards that Rangers had offered him the job when he left with Steven, he decided to go with Steven because he felt it was the right thing. I found that out afterwards.”
QPR have been on the slide in the Championship since Beale’s departure from Loftus Road and Ferdinand was quizzed on the the loss of the 42-year-old and how much he was committed to the club having also held talks with Wolves before taking the Rangers job.
Ferdinand said: “In terms of the process we went through, and doing the right thing, nobody knew Van Bronckhorst was going to get the sack – they went close to winning the league and they got to a European final and nearly won that so nobody saw him going.
“You have to look at the size of the club he went to. Ok, Wolves were Premier League, but the cynical side of me would say Wolves were in a precarious position. Rangers might not win the league but they’ll finish second, he’s gone to a better opportunity for him. Can you blame him for that? If that was a player, as much as you don’t want to lose him, if you were getting the right money for him after five months you’d probably say ‘yeh, ok’. You wouldn’t want it, but it happens.
“We got a bit of money for Mick in the end. We didn’t want to lose him, to say we got the process wrong I don’t think we did. If you look at the brand of football we played, where we were, where he was taking us, I think people would agree it was the right choice.”
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