Michael Beale reckons the Rangers hierarchy are giving Philippe Clement a lot more clarity than he ever received throughout his managerial tenure.
Beale, 43, was in the Ibrox hot seat for less than a year after accepting an approach to leave Queens Park Rangers in November 2022.
The Londoner had a successful start to life at Rangers, winning his first four matches in charge and being named Manager of the Month for December, but back-to-back Hampden Park defeats to Celtic left the club trophy-less for the season.
Rangers then endured a high squad and staff turnover that following summer, before he was eventually dismissed on October 1, 2023 after a 3-1 loss to Aberdeen, which left them seven points behind their city rivals.
However, Beale feels like he was let down by mixed messages from above, coupled with a lack of understanding for the situation he was left in.
He also confessed that he might have thought twice about accepting the offer to rejoin the Govan side had he known what he was letting himself in for.
And he even admitted red flags were already evident with the way his predecessor, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, was treated towards the end, given he had guided the Light Blues to a Europa League final.
"We went into the (2023-24) season with a lot of change," Beale told the Mindset For Sport Podcast.
"There had to be a greater awareness. I wasn’t willing to say it publicly that it was going to take time with so much change. The new season came, we won eight drew two and lost four and I left.
“If we had explained a bit better about the process we were going through it could have prolonged but it’s sad the way it ended for me personally. I’m listening and looking to what the chairman is now saying about Philippe Clement which is really important because we didn’t communicate like that last year when the situation was the exact same.
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"Rangers needed a big of a turnover of players and financially with the wages, with getting into the Champions League and the bonuses and increases players got, that had to come down again. They’re the things people don’t see. I was thrust into a situation that was a little bit alien to the skills I had. Thankfully the CEO James Bisgrove did all the contract negotiations and financial stuff.
"But from April to the time I left in October, I wasn't able to spend as much time on the training pitch as I had before by being pulled from losing a sporting director and CEO.
“Unfortunately, around April time, the sporting director Ross Wilson left which was a big thing for me as Ross and the CEO Stewart Robertson were people I knew from my time with Steven (Gerrard), along with the current chairman John Bennett. They were two of the guys who met to speak about coming back and the offer was less than the offer from QPR to stay.
"This was made with the heart but I knew I had those guys around me and Zeb Jacobs was someone I identified for the Academy head coaching job. I felt I was going back to a club I knew everyone but Ross left, the CEO was leaving, the Academy manager and the chief scouts all left and I found myself in a situation that wasn’t one I would have signed up to in November.
“I love Rangers Football Club and the time I had there but when I went in we were really pushing and come the summer a lot changed.
“So at the end of the season when we had so many big earners out of contract, our offer to them was nowhere near as strong as the offer for them. Out of those who left, the only one I really didn’t want to leave was Fashion Sakala who did really well for me but he had an offer to triple his wages and the club had an offer of about £4m for a player they signed for free. It was frustrating.
"The other guys all wanted to leave so it wasn’t like you were holding anyone back. Malik Tillman was a player who we wanted to buy but Bayern Munich trumped us and part of the agreement was they could buy him back.
“When you look at (Giovanni) Van Bronckhorst he won the Scottish Cup and got to the Europa League final. He was a penalty kick away from winning it and qualified for the Champions League after that so for him to lose his job early was a surprise but even when there’s a warning sign in that three’s not much patience you still want to take that opportunity.
"The first period was good but when you lose 15, 16 players and the main players in the final third it’s not rocket science to say the next team won’t start the season plain sailing. I probably wasn’t aware the finances weren't what they were when Steven was there. It was about spending and selling to make the net spend low and bring the wages down.
“Managing and coaching are two different things. With a sporting director, CEO, head scouts it enabled me to coach and have an opinion on other things. At this moment in time Celtic are the best financially so you need snookers. I left with 73 per cent win percentage so in my eyes the team would have kicked on. I’m still a fan and wish the new manager well.”
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On his relationship with Steven Gerrard - where the pair had a fairly successful three-year Ibrox reign together between 2018 and 2021 - Beale revealed the managerial link-up actually came as a pleasant surprise to him as he outlined how the offer to work with the Liverpool legend at Rangers happened.
"That was a strange one really," he said. "When I was Liverpool's Under-23's coach, we had a lot of ex-players come in and work around the group. We had Rob Jones, Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler, Kenny Dalglish used to come in. It was brilliant for me as a young coach having these guys in.
"And it was said that Steven was coming back and was going to be in and around the academy for six months, so I was actually looking forward to him coming in and perhaps spending a bit of time working around the club.
"But it coincided with me leaving. So with Steven having come back into the academy, I'd left to go to Brazil. So, when I came back the following September, Steven was taking the Under-18s but our jobs and roles never overlapped. We never really got passed 'hello'. So the day that he asked me to go work with him at Rangers was a surprise to myself. I thought that I would stay at Liverpool and move back up the age groups that summer, but it was a nice surprise.
"The moment I sat and spoke to Steven about what he wanted and his ambitions then I felt that it was an unbelievable opportunity to follow him."
"Steven was absolutely fantastic to work for," he continued while reflecting on the experience as Gerrard's assistant. "Not just Steven, his assistant, Gary McAllister, so two really famous people and both former national teams captains. There was so much I could learn from them, there was certainly some areas that I could give to them as well in terms of on-field coaching and Steven's way is to stand back a little bit more and observe, and he gave me a great deal of freedom and trust to put my ideas into the team.
"For that three-and-a-half years that we were at Rangers together before going to Aston Villa together, it was fantastic. It was clear that it was a huge club, but obviously making its way from 2012 and them being dropped down the leagues. It was making its way back.
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"There was a huge turnover of players in the time I was there with Steven. We had to rebuild the squad, and then we had to rebuild the squad again to achieve more. We did that through Europe. Both through Steven and then myself the second time there, I had 60 games in either the Europa League or the Champions League qualifiers. So, that was an unbelievable experience in terms of playing against some of the elite teams in Europe.
"But also Rangers is an unbelievable football club. I moved my family, where some of the other staff would have kept their family because their children was settled and they had their extended family in Liverpool, but I moved my family up. My daughter was born here and we are really happy where we live out in the countryside.
"But as a football club, the fan base is huge, the expectations are also huge, and there was some incredible highs and there was more than a few lows along the way."
