Beale set to make first transfers over coming days
MICHAEL BEALE expects to make his first moves as Rangers manager in the coming days after holding crunch talks with key January transfer targets.
The Englishman is eager to bolster his squad at the first attempt this month following his appointment as Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s successor at Ibrox.
Rangers remain nine points adrift of Celtic in the Premiership title race and have crucial cup clashes with Aberdeen and St Johnstone on their schedule in the coming weeks.
Long- term absentees John Souttar and Ianis Hagi are edging closer to featuring this term after stepping up their respective recovery programmes once again.
And supporters should expect new faces at Ibrox sooner rather than later after Beale dismissed the possibility of completing loan moves as a short- term fix for the second half of the season.
Beale said: “We’ve spoken to two or three players. Our phone’s not stopped really, there’s a lot of players interested in coming here.
“I’ve got to make sure they’re the right one. I’m a little bit fussy. I want to sit in front of a player and I want to look in his eyes. It’s alright doing something over Zoom.
“My schedule’s been pretty packed out up until that game last Monday. This week’s been spent meeting people face to face and getting a feel for them, telling them exactly what I want, not the other way around in terms of what they’re expecting.
“It’s what I’m expecting from them and the role that I want them to play coming in because when we’re recruiting I’m recruiting players for a really specific role.
“It’s not just about a collection of players coming in. I want to recruit a player that comes in and does a really specific job for us in the squad because I think that’s what we need right now.
“I said when I first came in the job I didn’t think it was as broken as people were making out. I think the only that can improve that are performances on the pitch and I think three or four of the right additions can pull everything together in the right direction.”