EX-RANGERS star Derek Ferguson has said he would welcome controversial former Rangers manager Michael Beale back to the club.
Beale was a first team coach under Steven Gerrard when he was the Light Blues’ gaffer, and rumours are swirling that he could return in a similar role should the former Liverpool captain take the helm at Ibrox once again.
2
2
London-born Beale left Rangers with Gerrard and became assistant manager to the Champions League winner at Aston Villa at the end of 2021.
He seen the season out as Gerrard’s number two, before starting a management career of his own with QPR.
A matter of months later he was snapped up for the vacant manager’s position at Ibrox, as Gers parted company with boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
Beale didn’t last a year in the Ibrox hot seat, with a trophyless first season, and three losses in the Gers first seven in his second seen his position become untenable and he was relieved of his duties in October 2023.
Read more Rangers stories
By December, he had joined Sunderland, but his spell with the Black Cats only lasted two months, and he was sacked.
He teamed back up with Gerrard in Saudi Arabia, joining Al Ettifaq as assistant to the ex-England international in November of last year, but was sacked once more only two months later.
Ferguson, who spent seven years with Rangers in the eighties and nineties, has came out and backed Beale to follow Gerrard, should he rejoin Rangers.
Ferguson said on Open Goal: “You know my feelings on Beale. But see if it is Steven Gerrard and if he’s going to feel comfortable and he’s going to just be the coach and that’s your side of it? I’d be alright with that.
“I would welcome him back. There you go.
“That’s somebody that I was really upset with, Beale, at the time.”
Derek, whose son is Scotland star, Lewis Ferguson, compared the potential return of Beale to the controversial signing of Mo Johnston from Celtic.
He said: “You’re talking about Philippe Clement talking a lot of nonsense at times, you thought Beale had invented football the way he spoke.
“But then if his role is there to coach the players, to make them better on the grass, that’s what it is all about.
“They forget, it’s like Mo Johnston. They sign Mo, the fans, uproar. Then once he starts scoring, they start flooding back.”
Gerrard is the bookies favourite for the Rangers job, but ex-Rangers star Russell Martin is also in the frame for the role.
Reports from Spain also suggest that Davide Ancelotti, son of Carlo Ancelotti is still interested in the vacant position at Ibrox.
Keep up to date with ALL the latest news and transfers at the Scottish Sun football page
