Michael Beale has learned quickly that dealing with outspoken opinions from former players and coaches is one of the many hazards that come with the Rangers job.
He’s had a couple to sidestep already this week. First there was Craig Levein insisting it’s time the Old Firm did the rest of Scottish football a favour and cleared off to England. Ibrox legend Mark Hateley warned Beale he risks triggering a “tsunami” of pressure if he can’t find a way to hold back the green and white tide roaring towards another Treble.
He wouldn’t be the first Light Blues boss to fall victim to such pitfalls. Pedro Caixinha ended up barking about caravans as the critics lined up before his failure to rein in top dogs Celtic cost him his job. Gio van Bronckhorst took a more diplomatic approach when it came to dealing with those sniping from the sidelines but, again, it was ultimately his failure to negotiate a way past Ange Postecoglou’s side that did for the Dutchman.
Beale couldn’t argue with what Hateley had to say, knowing fine well that the men in charge of Rangers live and die by their record against their Parkhead rivals. But the Londoner tried a new approach yesterday when it came to Levein’s comments, responding to the former Scotland manager’s complaints over the state of Scottish football with one of his own.
While Levein reckons the Premiership is the most uncompetitive league in Europe, the Rangers gaffer reckons it’s also one of the most unnecessarily complicated. “What’s Craig planning on doing with us?” smiled Beale as he was asked if Levein had a point when he suggested it was time for the Old Firm to move on, perhaps also leaving the rest of Scottish football a cash sweetener as compensation for a move to England.
“Everyone has an opinion on whether Celtic and Rangers should be in the league or out of it. I have a personal opinion on the split. Unless everyone plays everyone else the same amount of times, it’s not a fair league.
“Why not just add two more teams and then we can have a six and an eight split? The more complicated you make the competition, the less credibility it has as well. That’s not me talking down the league.
“I look around different leagues in Europe and the Belgian league seems very complex. Someone needs to sit you down and explain how that works. You can be sixth in the league and finish top.
“In our league we have a split and you should be playing all five teams at home. But obviously it has to be three and two.
“And if you were to drop a position to miss out on Europe or get relegated and you haven’t played the exact same fixtures as the team that comes off best. That doesn’t seem right. That’s just my personal opinion, but I’m just a manager in the league.
“I don’t want to be the person that decides all that. I just want to look after Rangers. But if we are going to talk about the league then we need to have a voting system that allows everyone to vote.
“We have an 11-1 voting system and when we were talking about doing away with artificial surfaces or restructuring the league…We had a big moment and we didn’t use it. We had a really big window of opportunity.
“What I would say is that, if people like Craig – who has been the national team coach, a player and manager in this league for many years – feels something can’t we get more people like Craig in a room and give us a plan moving forward?”
Levein drew his conclusions after looking at the 25-point gulf currently separating Gers in second and the rest of the chasing pack. Hateley came to his own after taking stock of the nine-point gap to leaders Celtic that Gers are still desperately trying to chop down as the Premiership title race enters the final straight.
Gers face clashes against Motherwell and Dundee United either side of the international break before the first of a trilogy of Old Firm duels that will decide if Celtic can wrap up the league and Scottish Cup to go with their Viaplay Cup success. Defeat on that Parkhead trip on April 8 would surely spell the end of Beale’s honeymoon period despite having to date lost just one of his 18 games so far. But that’s nothing the Rangers boss didn’t know already.
He said: “Listen, it’ll be my third game in that fixture. We should have won the first one, we didn’t. We lost the second one and were second best in that game and it was a final.
“Now we have the third, fourth and fifth editions coming very, very quickly. The first was my first loss in nine in an Old Firm and it didn’t take too good, to be honest.
“Listen, the pressure on me is to win every single game. That is what I signed up for. When you’re having a rough day, you remember you knew all about this when you signed up for it.
“The games have not been a big gap in terms of quality and score line, which there probably was earlier in the season. We have shown that we can consistently win against most of the teams in the league and go on a strong run.
“It’s important with three derby games coming up in the last 11, 12 games of the season that we try to win more than we lose. We’re all focused on that. Before that there is a lot of football to be played. I haven’t got a magic ball that tells me who is going to be fit and available. I’ll deal with that game when it comes around. I agree with Mark. It’s fine, it’s par for the course.”
READ NEXT
