Michael Beale wasted no time helping get the Steven Gerrard era flying at Rangers thanks to big European away results.
Now the Ibrox boss hopes his previous in plotting those successful missions can ease his Gers team through a potentially fraught path to Champions League riches. Rangers got back their pride and made plenty progress in Europe immediately after Gerrard and Beale got to work.
A year on from the Progres Niederkorn nightmare, they battled their way through a marathon eight-game slate to reach the Europa League. They repeated the arduous qualifying trick the following season then made the Round of 16 in back-to-back campaigns. Gers were already out of Europe after a Champions League embarrassment when Beale returned in November as manager. So leading the club into continental competition for the first time – after 53 games assisting – is a huge deal for him. Beale admits the release of the domestic fixtures was one great source of excitement.
But he’d also circled a red pen around the date of July 24 - the day Gers find out their third qualifying round rivals. Sturm Graz and Serbian newcomers TSC Backa Tolopa are in the frame. Genk and Ukraine’s Dnipro-1 look tougher if they progress from the last round.
Beale recalled: “I remember coming in with Steven and, in the second week in July, we played qualifiers. Games away in places like Skopje, Maribor, having to beat Ufa. And in the next couple of years there was Legia Warsaw and Galatasaray – just to get into the group stage. Sometimes it’s better to play a team you know. There’s always, in the back of your mind, an idea of how they’re going to play and the environment you’re going into.
“There’s NEVER an easy game away from home in Europe. Sometimes lesser-known teams in the public eye are tougher because it really is the unknown. Shkupi in our first game was the prime example. We won at home (2-0) and thought it would be a formality going over there. It was anything but.
“It was extremely difficult because of the playing surface, environment, the 40 degree heat. Over the 50-plus games I’ve had with Rangers in Europe we’ve gone to really difficult venues. But I’m really looking forward to it. The first thing, of course, was the league fixtures coming out.
“But I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t in the back of my mind — waiting anxiously to see who we’re going to get in the Champions League. We know we’ve got group stage football – it was a huge motivation for me coming back. Of course, we want that to be in the Champions League. We’ve to play two tough ties to get there, hence why I’m so pleased with the speed of getting players in to give the team time to come together.
“We need to be at it in all competitions this year. That’s why we’re building the squad, trying to get two teams in the
building that can play.”
Beale and Gerrard didn’t enjoy that squad depth five years ago – and it showed. Domestic challenges wilted in the second half of each of the first two seasons. But Rangers won the title at a canter in 2020/21 and Beale knows the demand to wrestle back supremacy after another two years in Celtic’s slipstream is enormous.
He’s thrilled with transfer business which includes some stars who he and Gerrard realised were out of reach while Rangers remained in rebuild. Beale said: “The club is in a completely different place to when we arrived in 2018. The hope was big then. Now the expectation is much higher. I wanted that, I’m not worried about it from outside.
“No one could have more expectations than me and my staff and the players. The belief is a lot higher within the fan base as well. It’s important that we embrace that. I’m hugely motivated and excited. We are able to get the targets that maybe, back then, we fell short of getting. One or two of the boys that arrived this summer were on those lists. We’ve now managed to get them so I’m delighted.”
Now the man he must beat on the other side of the city is an old colleague. He has welcomed the arrival of Brendan Rodgers but insists all his concentration is on getting the Rangers fixes right. A big one was in forward areas where Sam Lammers, Cyriel Dessers and Abdallah Sima have arrived.
Beale added: “Firstly, it’s good for the league Brendan has come back. He’s someone I’m familiar with all the way back to my time at Chelsea and Liverpool. He’s a good manager, a good coach and they’ll look to strengthen and add something to their squad to keep pushing.
“But I’m busy focusing on us. My job is to make sure that we’re as strong as possible. I look forward to the challenge. The fixtures come out, it makes it reality, we’ve an interesting one straight away at Killie - a tough place, live on Sky. So there’s a real excitement about the start. I sense that from the fans as they’ll be looking to see what the new faces bring.
“In the time since I came back, the points total in the league was pleasing. Now we get a chance to start from the beginning of the season and hopefully these new players improve us. We created so many chances in the big games and big moments last year. If we’d executed, our destiny would’ve been different. It wasn’t, so we’ve learned.”
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