When it comes to the strange little world of Scottish football, we tend to get carried away with its importance.
But of course, there are times when the outcome of a football match is put very firmly into perspective, moments when its insignificance is shown up against the grander scale of life’s more pressing concerns. Michael Beale had one such moment a couple of days before what was the biggest date in his fledgling managerial career.
While preparing for last week’s Viaplay Cup final clash with Celtic, the Rangers boss and his wife Roxanne were handed the devastating news that their cherished niece Poppy had suffered a relapse of the blood cancer she thought she had beaten only a couple of months before.
Of course the Ibrox gaffer is aware of how badly the supporters who pay his wages have taken their Hampden loss, sharing every ounce of the disappointment they’ve expressed in the days since. But events at home also allow the Londoner to step back and realise that sometimes, there’s more important things than football.
Opening up on Poppy’s heartbreaking news, he said: “It’s difficult because it’s my wife’s sister’s baby – my niece.
“She’s the same age as my daughter so you have a daughter who’s three-and-a-half years old and well and a niece who’s had two years of chemotherapy. She rings the bell (after beating cancer), then three months later it relapses.
“As a family, it’s difficult because you are a long way away from helping, with the family being in London. That news, in the middle of last week, was difficult.
“You don’t really realise how important our health system is and how important our doctors and nurses are until your own family feel it. It’s been ongoing for two years, we thought we were outside of it and the situation has come back.
“It’s the one thing in the world I think we’d all love to find a cure for I think, cancer, for sure.”
For now, there is something we can all do to help little Poppy and others suffering like her, by donating blood. Beale explained: “People need to give blood because these young children when they are in there, like anyone with cancer, they have to go through a blood transfusion and study like that.
“If it gets to the stage of bone marrow, they have to have a match. There’s been loads of well wishers to the family and the family on my wife’s side have been a bit overwhelmed with it all, that’s lovely.
“I don’t think even I realised the importance of people giving blood before the event. It’s maybe something that there needs to be a little bit more awareness of.”
As someone who lives and breathes football, Beale can understand just why passions run so high in a city like Glasgow. But often, he acknowledges, it’s those closest to the players and coaches who find themselves also having to take a dive in at the Old Firm goldfish bowl’s deep end.
“Football is our release,” he said. “It’s the thing that sometimes can make you feel selfish as a husband or a father because you miss things.
“That’s fine, it’s part of the job, you give back in other ways. But certainly there are times where football is your be all and end all but there are other times when other things happen when you can feel a little bit selfish and you need to give attention to your family.”
Right now, the challenge at Rangers is demanding as much attention as Beale can offer. The simmering fan unrest that has been brewing away or much of the season burst to the surface on Saturday as the Union Bears aimed a banner dig at the Ibrox board.
Beale is the man caught in the middle, trying to turn around a team that has failed too many times for the supporters’ patience while trying to work with the directors they blame. But Beale insists he knew fine well what he was stepping into.
He said: “It’s a huge privilege to be manager of this football club so I take everything that comes with it. I came in with my eyes open and aware of the role because I have the unique insight of being here previously.
“Nothing has surprised me and I’ve been happy with the progress made, in the main. Do we need to improve a lot more? Yeah we do but I’ve been honest about that, even when we’ve been winning games I’ve said what I’ve been happy with and what I haven’t.
“You have to remind yourself that this is a really big football club and with that comes a lot of expectation. But that’s a good thing, when you lose a cup final in the way we did - and we didn’t perform well - you have to own it.
“We have done, we responded on Saturday, it’s where we are as a group but no-one is hiding from that. We have to improve.
“Listen. The fans are entitled to make their feelings known. They pay their money and they come. We’d be a lot worse off without our fans.
“I’d like it if we were all together but I understand at other times there’s going to be discontent. When you lose a cup final the way we did, I think in the days after you are going to see a reaction from the fans.
“But it’s important you see a reaction from the players on the pitch and I thought for the majority of the game at the weekend we got that.
“I’ve got to keep all that (unrest) away from them. That’s my job, it’s a heavy shirt at times but it’s a great opportunity to play for our club. With it comes big expectations, they’re aware of that and we’ve spoken about it.
“We have too move forward. We should be optimistic about the future. I’m the most optimistic because I’m here every day and see the talks we’re having about potential new signings.
“Nothing has weakened. If anything I feel stronger now than the day I walked back into the club.”
