Beale: Rangers going all-out for Euro dream
Michael Beale knows that domestic success is a necessity if he is to have an extended run as manager of Rangers.
But the Englishman is happy to admit that Europe, in particular the Champions League, is also occupying his thoughts.
The revenue that comes from taking part in the word’s most lucrative club competition is important when it comes to funding signings and salaries.
Rangers reached the Champions League group stage last season, but little went right for them when the action started.
Six defeats in six games, including a 7-1 mauling at home by Liverpool, saw them acquire the unwanted tag as the worst team in the history of the competition.
A better showing this term would help to soothe those painful memories.
Who Rangers play in the third qualifying round will be revealed on July 24.
Beale said: “I’m looking forward to it. “The first thing 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’re going hell for leather to get in the Champions League.
“If we get in and we do well, hopefully getting into Pot 3, that gives you a different thing altogether.
“If we don’t, then we go into a competition that we love, the Europa League.
“But the aim is to get into the Champions League and be in Europe after Christmas. “Every European game is difficult. “Sometimes the lesser-known teams to the public eye are more difficult because it really is the unknown.
“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 to go into.
“There’s never an easy game away from home in Europe.
“Over the 50-plus games I’ve had with Rangers in Europe, we’ve gone to some really difficult venues which, on paper, probably seemed a little bit easier than some of the tougher places we’ve been to.”
Beale doesn’t shy away from the reality that must bring silverware to Ibrox.
The Rangers supporters simply won’t stand for watching Brendan Rodgers leading Celtic to another domestic Treble.
That makes the situation very different to the one he found when he came to Scotland as part of Steven Gerrard’s coaching staff.
He said: “The club is in a completely different place to when we arrived in 2018. The expectations are higher. Then, the hope was big. Now the expectation is much higher.
“The belief is a lot higher within the fanbase as well. It’s important that we embrace that.
“I’m hugely motivated and excited about that. We are able to get the targets that maybe back then we fell short of getting.
“One or two of the boys that have arrived this summer were on those lists back then.
“We’ve now managed to get them, so I am delighted.”
As well as signing a few players, Beale has also dispensed with a few.
The most notable departure was Alfredo Morelos.
The Colombian had spells where he was a huge asset to Rangers, but his indiscipline and then lack of dedication saw his time at the club fade to an unremarkable end.
Beale said: “A lot of those players had been on a fantastic journey.
“There were not many I didn’t know when I came back.
“But some were at a different moment in their time at Rangers, it is fair to say.
“There wasn’t the bundle of energy they were when they came in.
“They had experienced a lot, won, lost and had a bit of change around management in between.
“Then it was about keeping the team moving forward.
“Now it is a different motivation for the players.
“I feel a real energy off the new guys.” Beale admits that Steven Gerrard had time to implement changes on and off the field when he took the Rangers hot-seat.
With six months under his belt as manager, it’s different for the 42-year-old.
Does he accept that winning will be seen as not just desirable but essential?
He said: “I think so. I wanted that as well. I’m not worried about the expectation outside.
“No one could have more expectations for this group of players than me and my staff and the players inside.
“If I said ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to that question, we know the answer to it!”