Graeme McGarry
Beale needs more than brown brogues and bluster to overhaul Celtic
FROM the outside, it is easy to mock the notion that the return of brown brogues to Ibrox will somehow lead to the return of silverware to the Blue Room on a regular basis; that ratcheting up the staunch off the field will lead to a rise in standards on it.
The new Rangers manager, Michael Beale, has received widespread derision from opposition fans for resurrecting the old tradition that his players should be fully suited and booted when they report to Ibrox on a home matchday.
From the inside though, plenty of his own fans will be pleased that he has not only given a nod to the traditions of the club, but more importantly, that he has sent his players a message about what is expected of them when they play for Rangers.
Former Rangers captain Barry Ferguson has been ridiculed this week too for saying how delighted he was at the move in his Daily Record column, but while fans too will mostly welcome it, the vast majority of supporters are also discerning enough to judge Beale by how his training methods, tactics and recruitment improve the team. Not his dress code.
A natural question to ask is just how Ange Postecoglou has managed to raise standards right across the board at Celtic, and leave his own players in absolutely no doubt about what the demands on them are, while still allowing them to come to games in their trackies? Could it be because what they wear doesn’t actually make a blind bit of difference?
There has been more than a hint of playing to the gallery from Beale since he came back to Glasgow. The brogue is back in vogue. He talked of winning “56”. He has referred to Celtic as “the other club”. He was dismissive of Hibernian in his pre- match press conference this week, saying he hadn’t really bothered to look into their opponents in any great detail, preferring to focus on what his own side will bring to the party. Do that
well, and it shouldn’t matter what anyone else does, was the message.
“I’ve been focusing heavily on ourselves and the way that we perform because I think that a strong Rangers performing at the level will be enough in most domestic games,” Beale said. It wouldn’t have been all that much of a surprise had he signed off with “no one likes us, we don’t care, WATP”.
He may well be right, mind you. By the time you read this, the odds are that his first game in charge may well have resulted in a thumping win over a Hibs team who went to Ibrox having lost six of their last seven matches. But it will take more than a standalone victory over a team in freefall to convince anyone that this Rangers squad are capable of turning their season around and providing a credible challenge to “the other team” for the Premiership title.
Fans of QPR may well wryly point out that just about everything their now former manager says can be taken with a larger batch of salt than was required to grit Edmiston Drive this week, given his sermon on the importance of loyalty that came a month before he jumped ship for Ibrox. Actions speak louder than words, and it in his deeds that Rangers fans will also judge his merits.
Beale picks up with Rangers as they sit nine points adrift of Celtic at the top of the table. To use another well- worn Ibrox mantra of the past, his team had better get the battle fever on fast if they are to have any chance of bridging that gap.
A bit of hubris has gone down well at Ibrox over the years, but only when the team match that rhetoric of superiority. At the moment, Beale has a job on just to make them a competitive proposition.
Confidence has been shattered by the Champions League disaster, as well as the 4- 0 pummelling they received when visiting Celtic Park in September. Beale was also right to point out that a major part of his job will be to revive individuals who were once the jewels in the crown, but now look likely to slink out of Ibrox as a job lot in the summer in Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent.
Restoring that belief and reviving those talented but underperforming players will go much further in convincing the Ibrox faithful that he is up to the Rangers job than any tub- thumping or reversion to Struthian sartorial standards.
That doesn’t necessarily mean winning the league this season. Given the deficit he has inherited in the standings, he will receive a rare period of grace from the Rangers fans where he will not be expected to wrest the Premiership crown back from Celtic in what remains of this term.
If he does manage it, he will be heralded as a returning messiah. But what he must do is claw back the gap to Celtic at least a little, and prove that he is capable of putting out a Rangers team that their fans can be proud of for what they do on the pitch, and one capable of winning the league next season at the very least.
Beale may have banked some staunch points since coming back to Rangers, but ultimately in time, it will be points on the board that determine his Ibrox fate.
There has been more than a hint of playing to the gallery from Beale since he came back to Glasgow