Hardline media strategy at Ibrox ‘put pressure on players and staff’

MICHAEL BEALE has criticised Rangers’ hardline approach to media relations, insisting it applied extra pressure to management and playing staff during Steven Gerrard’s reign at the club.

Last season, the Ibrox club took the unprecedented step of denying newspaper and broadcast outlets interview and press conference access unless they had either an existing rights agreement with the SPFL or paid a fee to become an official media partner.

The move was the culmination of a restriction of access that Beale believes was counter-productive to the daily working environment at Rangers — and also lessened exposure of the club’s playing assets to the lucrative English market.

Although understanding of the club’s view that some media coverage can be reductive, Beale believes the Ibrox hierarchy should be big enough to rise above those issues and communicate openly.

‘The media in Scotland is very intense,’ said Beale. ‘But the relationship the club had with the media wasn’t always helpful.

‘It’s something we inherited and it was difficult.

‘It put a lot of pressure on the players and management and I would encourage them to come away from that.’

A first-team coach at Ibrox, Beale followed Gerrard to Aston Villa midway through last season and has now been appointed head coach at Queens Park Rangers, where his own media exposure will increase.

He believes communication is key to the job and hopes Giovanni van Bronckhorst and his players are given greater scope to convey their message in the upcoming season.

He continued: ‘Going in to Rangers with a clean eye and a clean heart, I just found it difficult.

‘I can’t speak for Steven or anyone else but, in my opinion, it brought pressure on the players and the coaching team.

‘Therefore you are starting a leg behind because of something you have chosen to do.

‘They hired a brand in Steven Gerrard that excited fans, sold season tickets and attracted sponsorship.

‘And his first interview ‘Let’s Go’ — it sent a message out that we were coming.

‘But a lot of good stories were missed because down here you don’t hear about those players. If you don’t allow yourself to talk about them in the media, PR, I just think it’s something that was unnecessary.

‘I said this in-house at the time. Sometimes you have to be bigger than the situation

‘So the people at the top, if it’s about having a better Rangers, they should take a loss on it to make things better.’