Michael Beale has admitted that his only worry over losing Malik Tillman in the summer is if parent club Bayern Munich are so impressed by his progress at Rangers that they want him back as part of their first team squad.
The young American international has been in superb form for the Ibrox club since Beale replaced Giovanni van Bronckhorst in November but the terms of Tillman's loan agreement from Bayern mean that Rangers have the first option to buy at a set fee - believed to be around £5m-£6m - if the Bundesliga giants decide to sell him.
And Beale is ready to meet that asking price in the belief that the 20-year-old, who has started all but one of the 11 games Rangers have played since his return to the club, scoring three times, including one in the 3-0 win over Hearts on Wednesday night.
The Rangers boss, who will almost certainly include Tillman against Ross County at Ibrox, asked if he was concerned that the player's performances may have alerted clubs in bigger leagues to his potential, insisted he had no worries on that front because of the details agreed in his loan move.
He said: "No, because we have the first opportunity to buy him. Bayern have a decision whether they feel he’s going to play for them. There’s a number, we know what it is and we’re comfortable with the number. Also, we wouldn’t just want to buy a boy that maybe wants to be elsewhere.
"At the moment, everything is fine. I’ll be honest, I haven’t even had that conversation with Malik. It’s not like you get him in a room and put a gun to his head and ask: 'Do you want to be here?' I think he has to show you that in his performances and the way he’s playing.
"I’ve asked him to do a slightly different role. He played mostly as a striker or second striker coming through at Bayern. I’m asking him to be a midfielder who breaks out to score goals from there because I think it adds another goalscorer. So far so good. Wednesday was a big tick in the box in terms of an away game in Scottish football where it’s a little bit fast and frantic. Can he handle that as a 20-year-old? I think he handled it really, really well."
While Beale is relaxed about the situation, he admits he'd love to see Tillman being a little LESS laid-back on the pitch. He smiled: "Sometimes he’s a little bit too calm for my liking. Somewhere in between British passion and intensity and his calmness is probably where you want the dial at times.
"You do have a couple of heart-in-mouth moments at times when he’s doing some of his stuff. But he’s a very classy player. There are a lot of good players across all the teams in Scotland. We had quite a few go to the World Cup, which probably shows the league in a good light as well. At 20, Malik is a boy who has come in without people knowing anything about him and he’s a really pleasing player. But I think we’ve got them across the league."
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