Michael Beale reckons Douglas Park departs the Ibrox boardroom having helped piece back together a broken club.
Grab a result at Celtic Park today and there’s every chance the Light Blues legions will speak in similarly glowing terms about his own Rangers restoration job. It’s all change at the top of the marble staircase, with Park handing over the chairmanship to John Bennett. The motor group tycoon was one of the Three Bears who stepped in alongside Dave King to claw control away from Mike Ashley, putting Gers on a course that eventually ended with them roaring all the way to Seville having halted 10 in a row.
Of course, as well as those scoring highs, Park’s tenure also witnessed plenty of downs, dramas and controversies and Rangers return to Parkhead this afternoon sees Celtic again on the verge of being crowned kings of Scotland. But on the whole Beale is adamant Gers are in a far better state than when the former chairman started ponying up huge sums to reverse Ashley’s efforts to transform the Ibrox side into the footballing equivalent of his bargain-basement retail empire.
The switch at the head of the boardroom table won’t have too much bearing on the day-to-day operations the Ibrox gaffer is in charge of. And Beale is confident his new partnership with Bennett can take the club to new levels.
He said: “Firstly, I’d like to congratulate Douglas on his time as chairman but also in terms of his general support and investment in this club. He has been fantastic for the club.
“John Bennett is someone I’ve known as vice-chairman for a long time and I’m delighted it’s him that’s taking on the reins from Douglas and I trust that our relationship will stay the same and the club will move forwards.
“Certainly Douglas leaves us with a strong foundation in terms of not just things that have happened on the pitch but obviously the improvement in infrastructure and where the club is now compared to when he started his chairmanship. He hands the reins over to John in a better place than when he received it and that is all you can ask for.
“Congratulations to both – one on a job well done and one on taking the job obviously. Look at board level there is a buffer between that and me, which is Ross Wilson obviously.
“I’m here managing the playing staff and squad here. I have an open dialogue with John anyway and we spoke earlier this week – it’s business as usual. I don’t see there being any change.”
The only way there will be a change at the top of the Premiership table this season is if Gers can somehow grab a victory this afternoon and hope it sparks a collapse that would need to be as sudden as it currently looks unlikely.
Realistically, today may just be about putting down a marker for the Scottish Cup semi-final showdown at Hampden later this month – and perhaps even next season. Beale said: “Belief is growing all the time and we’ll add to it in the next window and I’ll add to it when people’s futures are out there in the public domain.
“You have to do things to protect people and to protect the club as well. We’re towards the back end of a season and still got really important games to play.
“I’ve come in to do a certain job and certainly in the summer it gives me another opportunity to really lay solid foundations for the team. What we’ve done so far is go on a fantastic run and really given ourselves the best opportunity to change perceptions outside.”
Steven Gerrard inherited a team that was similarly lagging when Beale first moved north with the Liverpool legend in 2018. After back-to-back derby defeats in the East End in their first season in Scotland, some among the blue half of the city wondered if Gers could ever bridge the gap that had grown during the chaos of their rebuilding years.
But the December 2019 Parkhead victory sealed by Niko Katic’s thumping header finally proved that Celtic were not infallible on their own patch. Could a win today do the same for Beale’s side?
“Certainly for the newer lads it would be a huge thing for them in terms of knowledge that they went and did well in this fixture and got a big result,” he said. "In the last two games I’d liked to have played better but there were still enough big opportunities for us to execute in the final third.
“If you execute in those moments then nobody is talking about how you played. Everybody after this game talks about the result.
“So we’ve got to do whatever it takes to get one and certainly when you’ve got the upper hand in this derby, whether that be in points or the one-off game, it certainly gives you a platform to move forward.
“Winning these games might mean it is too short this season but certainly it will set us up for a brighter future, which is the main thing.”
That festive 2019 clash got a bit spicy late on when Beale – then Gerrard’s right-hand man – got his marching orders amid a touchline confrontation with Hoops assistant John Kennedy.
Now he’s the main man, Beale admits he’ll have to keep his cool. He said: “That was a long time ago, to be fair. We won’t go back on that.
“Do I feel any different going back to Parkhead as manager? Not really. The expectation is big and that’s a nice thing.”
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