Ok so I’ve slept on Mick Beale. That sounds gross doesn’t it. But let’s see where I’ve landed, trying to be as balanced as possible against all arguments I’ve felt and heard: Will start by saying my initial response yesterday was shock, dismay and anger. I think I overreacted and I think many have, due to the shock and disappointment at what seems like a lost opportunity. However, QPR fans say he played attractive, ball on the floor football in a 4-2-3-1 formation , which ticks boxes Rangers fans hated his football, but every manager has a crap spell at a club. Look at Moyes with us then followed up with West Ham. And Rangers this season have still only conceded 8 goals, so he can’t have been an absolute disaster. People also think he only gets jobs by interviewing well. But Rangers hired him twice. People must have liked him there to want him back. His interviews and press conferences are a bit jargon heavy which I think will annoy people. But if he combines that with winning games it will be amazing how quickly people ignore that The way he treated QPR was piss poor. I have no defence for that. I guess the one crumb to hang onto hear is we are a huge club and he wouldn’t do that to us We still have a tremendous young squad and he is universally seen as a brilliant coach, especially of young players. That has to be a positive His man management skills are seen as poor but I think that’s only based off a rangers experience that I think perhaps might have been toxic. I think he can be given benefit of doubt considering rangers wanted him back. And he will have Dodds around him who the players love. that has to help in summary, I’m still disappointed. But I’m not angry like I was yesterday afternoon. I fully back him and I fully back the club. About to head over on the 4 hr drive to Bristol and hopeful of 3 points to cheer everyone up. Love this club and love what’s happening to it. Let’s not let a few disappointments change the trajectory of that.
It's almost impossible to fully judge what happens at Rangers and Celtic because the expectation is based on besting your rival more than win ratio or style. You could play dogshit football but if you win the league year on year and beat your old firm rival in games, you will be considered a big success. It's completely different to anything in English football, you can learn more about Beale from his time at QPR in my opinion.
was thinking last night, the club could actually do with leaking stuff occasionally to test fan sentiment. Especially when it comes to hiring out of work managers where we hold all the bargaining power. I get the need for secrecy when we are negotiating with other clubs. But for an out of work manager they’d do well to test sentiment by leaking it. They don’t have to listen to that sentiment of course, but at least they’d not be surprised by it
Found this link that summarises the webinar Beale did. https://www.coachesvoice.com/cv/michael-beale-rangers-steven-gerrard/
Thing for me is, he could be as **** as people say, he equally could be much better as you describe here. Frustrating thing here is that nobody knows how he does for us and there’s unbelievable rage and campaigning against the club. It’s an overreaction of biblical levels. Embarrassing really. Imagine if he’s class.
Indeed. And I keep coming back to the fact I didn’t like to Mowbray appointment and wasn’t initially too keen on the Alex Neil one either. Even if I’m still disappointed in the Beale one, Speakman and KLD have proven to me that their managerial choices have been the right ones at the right time, so far. (Except Lee Johnson but that was before Speakman had even joined properly)
A bit like the lad who wrote on here that if we get beat by West Brom and Leeds we could be in a relegation battle, my reply was, if we win we will be in the playoffs and your comment will look really stupid. I guess he looks really stupid
My other big concern is that this reaction means I can’t see a scenario where Beale ends up being accepted by some. Every defeat, even after a 10 game winning run, will be followed up with “I told you Beale wasn’t the one” etc. some will be intrinsically desperate to see him fail. Which is just bonkers.
When Beale is announced as the new Head Coach by the club my view is its the 'wrong' appointment and will unsettle the players and fans. (I believe it will put us back on our journey between 12 - 18 months. My perception is its been done in a paninked and financial cost saving mode. We didnt get the guy we wanted..because we wouldnt pay for him. - Speakman spoke at the beginning of the season of our goal as a club and on what he wanted to achieve from the model. (We got no proven strickers to score the goals to get us promoted and we didnt get the exciting foreign high performance we were promised).
Still flat about it, qpr fans were buzzing when he was appointed and he did start well until his head was turned, I just don’t know on this one, but I wasn’t sure on Neil or Mowbray either so here’s hoping for a hat trick
Danny Graham springs to mind. When he was linked the fanbase didn't want him due to a match programme interview he gave during his time at Watford (we signed him from Swansea) where he said he was a Geordie and wanted to score against the Mackems. The fans didn't want him, the club went through with it anyway, it all ended in tears. Rightly or wrongly, club decisions aligning with the fanbase get an extended grace period that is sometimes needed. Again, rightly or wrongly.
that the players will be massively unsettled by it and it sets us back 12-18 months The players might really enjoy working for him and we might get promoted this season
we also weren’t promised foreign. Everybody assumed foreign. I do think they intended foreign, but people keep talking like the club have ever said publicly it would be a foreign appointment. They didnt
He isn’t what I expected so maybe some struggle with that expectation. The difference is that I can’t pretend I know much about many of the links and i don’t fall for media hype good or bad so I want to judge what happens here and what I see on the pitch. If it’s **** there’ll be no posiyive spin from me, I agree we’ve done a terrible job of replacing Stewart effectively and that’s fair criticism. The other stuff just isn’t at this point.
Also, you can argue Will Still isn't foreign. I think the expectation was someone with a grasp of French due to the French lads in the squad, but again that doesn't directly imply foreign, though admittedly increases the likelihood somewhat.
