Armed Forces day at Ibrox ended with the whiff of cordite in the air. After defeats to PSV Eindhoven and Celtic, Michael Beale already had a target trained on his back. A 3-1 defeat to Aberdeen ended with Rangers fans preparing to fire the manager out of a cannon.
There was no evidence that Beale, in the parlance of modern football, had lost the dressing room. Like Pedro Caixinha, Mark Warburton and Giovanni van Bronckhorst before him, he did lose the fanbase. From the moment Kyogo Furuhashi secured victory in the first Old Firm game of the season, he became a dead man walking. And when the paying customers lose faith, directors are rarely far behind.
Under chairman John Bennett, Rangers have become a club with a low tolerance threshold. Managing director Stewart Robertson and academy director Craig Mulholland have joined director of finance and football administration Andrew Dickson and company secretary James Blair in traipsing down the marble staircase with a box under their arm. The dismissal of the first-team manager was inevitable.
In recent weeks, boos replaced Tina Turner as the soundtrack to an Ibrox matchday – and Beale did nothing to build up his approval ratings on Saturday when he criticised supporters for making their feelings known at half-time. In the court of public opinion, the Englishman stood accused of delivering criminal performances and results – and the jury’s verdict was unanimous.
Directors were duty-bound to judge matters with a cooler head. As a club, Rangers have had 18 managers in their history. Five of those have come in the last eight years alone and sacking two in two years is a bad look for any club.
Michael Beale had a target on his back at Rangers and was sacked after the loss by Aberdeen
When the paying customers lose faith in managers, club directors are rarely too far behind
While Beale was clearly handicapped by a freakish run of injuries to key players, it became impossible to make allowances for his role in signing a number of new players who have done little to improve the team.
In the rush to wave good riddance to Alfredo Morelos, Ryan Kent, Antonio Colak and Fashion Sakala, there was an assumption that Rangers would sign better replacements. On current evidence, that’s not the case.
Of the nine signed in the summer, only goalkeeper Jack Butland earns pass marks. Cyriel Dessers, a striker signed from Cremonese for a reported £4.5million, looks like an extra in the wrong movie. Like Sam Lammers and Danilo, the Nigerian international has spent recent years bouncing from club to club – and failed to convince any that he was the answer. The reasons for that are now obvious.
Had Rangers taken early chances against Aberdeen, they could have won the game and saved the manager’s job. James Tavernier played Dessers in over the top with a fine ball after five minutes. With Abdallah Sima free for a tap-in, the striker tried to lift the ball over Kelle Roos and got it all wrong.
After 22 minutes, Dessers managed a header on target, the Dons keeper saving well. When Jose Cifuentes blew an even easier chance, Aberdeen came out of their defensive shell. Playing on the growing discontent of home supporters, they took the lead with a goal of unforgivable ease after 38 minutes.
Cifuentes was at fault once more, allowing Stefan Gartenmann to charge towards the back post unchallenged and bundle Leighton Clarkson’s pacy corner into the net for 1-0. Boos rang out at half-time.
Cyriel Dessers, a striker signed for a reported £4.5m, looks like an extra in the wrong movie
Rangers have become weak and fragile and jeers rang out again during the match at Ibrox
Rangers had failed to win any of the last five matches in which they had conceded the opening goal in the Premiership and, with a threadbare bench, that never looked like changing.
Ryan Jack suffered a calf strain in the first half and the addition of Ridvan Yilmaz to an injury list already featuring Kemar Roofe, Danilo, Todd Cantwell, Nico Raskin and Kieran Dowell began to feel like a curse has been cast by the gods of football. After 57 minutes, Aberdeen blew a glorious chance to put the game beyond Rangers. Clarkson’s deep cross was attacked by Bojan Miovski at the back post. Headed against the upright, he injured himself in the process.
So fragile and weak had Rangers become that a second goal looked inevitable. It finally came after sustained pressure in the 68th minute when Jack MacKenzie’s deflected strike was blocked by the legs of Butland. Jamie McGrath showed fine technique to ram the ball into the roof of the net from ten yards.
The boos returned. A Rangers scarf was thrown on to the roof of the technical area. Minutes later, things went from bad to worse when Rangers substitute – and former Aberdeen winger – Scott Wright received a harsh second yellow for catching Gartenmann.
The ten men pulled one back when Roos made a mess of a looping cross under pressure. Cifuentes squared at the back post for Sima to make it 2-1 and give the home side hope.
A test of Aberdeen’s mental fortitude, the visitors secured their first win at Ibrox in four and a half years with a third goal after 87 minutes.
In a desperate scramble, substitute Jonny Hayes had a shot brilliantly saved by Butland. MacKenzie claimed only the second goal of his senior career when he slammed the loose ball home for 3-1. After a VAR check for offside, the goal was given.
Aberdeen secured their first win at Rangers’ ground in four and a half years, sparking toxicity
Beale has learned the hard way that what goes around comes around at the top in football
At full-time, attempts by Rangers players to acknowledge and placate the scattering of home supporters in the Broomloan Stand went unappreciated. There is a toxicity around Ibrox now which can only be reversed by a manager capable of challenging Celtic.
Thursday’s Europa League game with Aris Limassol had the potential to complicate any discussions over Beale’s future. Generally, football clubs like to take the time to talk and think during international breaks. So bad had things become by Saturday night, however, that Beale’s position was untenable.
Leaving him at the helm for the trip to Cyprus, then Sunday’s hazardous trip to second-place St Mirren, became unthinkable.
Before Celtic’s defeat to Feyenoord last month, Scottish journalists were rebuffed in an approach to speak to Van Bronckhorst. Given the events of Saturday, you would pay good money for the Dutchman’s innermost thoughts now.
It was last October when Beale – then manager of Queens Park Rangers – displayed a lack of judgement and class by showing up in Glasgow to sink pints with Rangers supporters before a game against Aberdeen. It looked, for all the world, like a man chasing another man’s job.
While a 4-1 victory provided short-term relief for an under-pressure Van Bronckhorst, it couldn’t last.
Dropped points in Paisley proved the final straw and GvB was sacked. Flanked by Alex Rae in Armed Service Day pictures on Saturday, Beale has learned the hard way that what goes around comes around.