Was it the costliest cup of coffee Giovanni van Bronckhorst has ever had?
The one he had in the company of Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou, when the pair accidentally met in a restaurant favoured by both men near their homes in Glasgow’s West End. The breakfast beverage that ultimately meant his tea was out. Old Firm employees are effectively under 24-hour surveillance in the age of social media and there was an intrepid snooper on hand, of course, to photograph the moment for posterity.
And a seed of doubt over the Dutchman’s credentials was sown the moment the snapper put his photograph out in the public domain. Rangers supporters don’t like to see fraternisation with the enemy, particularly since Postecoglou had developed a habit of handing out severe beatings to Gio’s side whenever the teams met. One man’s civilised behaviour is another man’s questionable conduct when it’s a rivalry that doesn’t really do etiquette. The fans, I think, ultimately found their manager to be too polite and less combative than they were looking for. Those embraces with Postecoglou before and after the derby games were just too fraternal to fit the abrasive nature of the occasion.
Ruthlessness is what’s required. Cold-eyed determination and a grim-faced understanding that you have to do whatever is necessary to restore the balance of power tilted in Celtic’s favour by Postecoglou. Enter Michael, sometimes known as Mick, Beale. He circled his prey. He got his way.
That is how I’ll think of the man if he decides to take the job of being van Bronckhorst’s replacement at Ibrox. I thought he was cold blooded and calculating when he turned up at Ibrox for the game against Aberdeen before the international break.
And I can think of absolutely no reason to change my opinion now. Van Bronckhorst, restored to the bosom of his family in the Netherlands, must still be touch sensitive to the wounds that were inflicted on him in the final days of his time at Rangers.
Front and back. When Sean Dyche, for example, was asked about the club when damaging results were piling up for van Bronckhorst he went on at length about his friendship with Ross Wilson, Rangers’ sporting director, and the possibility of coming up for the Old Firm derby in January.
If Dyche had still been in charge of Burnley and was asked about speculation linking him with a player elsewhere he would have delivered the appropriate response. The managerial code of conduct would have compelled him to say the player was employed by a rival club so, under the circumstances, it wouldn’t be right to talk about somebody who worked somewhere else.
But he didn’t show van Bronckhorst that courtesy, even though he was still in office.
He just trampled over him to keep the speculative pot boiling. Beale went much further. He turned up in the directors’ box at Ibrox with no attempt to cover up his presence at a game that was being widely talked about as being pivotal to van Bronckhorst’s hopes of survival as manager.
Then he compounded the felony by visiting the local boozers to advertise the fact he was back in town in a way that looked an awful lot like a man who was canvassing support. A brass neck they call it in Glasgow, I believe. A vulture circling his prey is how I described it here at the time. And I see no reason fora rewrite.
The conventional wisdom is that Beale was the brains behind the operation when Steven Gerrard was in charge at Ibrox and Rangers stopped Celtic from winning 10-in-a-row. If he gets offered, and accepts, the vacant job at Rangers, those credentials will come up for inspection. There are remarkable similarities between that title-winning season and what’s going on in the present day.
Celtic gradually imploded under the weight of poor signings, questionable decision making on things like taking a winter break abroad when there was a pandemic on and, finally, the defeat away to Ross County that eventually cost Neil Lennon his job. Rangers’ transfer business has been roundly condemned.
Alfredo Morelos put out a photograph of himself lying by the pool with a drink in his hand while doing a passable impersonation of someone who couldn’t care less whenever he was on the field of play. Then there was the not-insignificant matter of a drawn match in Paisley that tipped van Bronckhorst over the edge. Even if it did take time.
Beale will, if he goes back to Ibrox, need to approach the ground with the same hard-hearted level of intent he showed on the day of the game against Aberdeen. Arithmetically, there is an equation that says a nine-point disadvantage with 23 games of football still to be played does not preclude the possibility of a change of order at the top of the league table.
The mathematician in charge of manipulating the numbers will then have to prove he is as good as he thinks he is. Having only 22 games under his belt as a manager – and only nine won – isn’t necessarily a concern regarding Beale.
Callum Davidson, while serving his managerial apprenticeship at St Johnstone, won one trophy more than Gerrard and Beale did in their three-year tenure at Ibrox. There’s only one piece of friendly advice that can be offered to the new occupant of the manager’s office there.
If you see Postecoglou coming towards you during the recreational hours spent away from the club don’t go anywhere near him and, whatever you do, refuse any offer of a coffee.
