NEW Rangers manager Michael Beale has confirmed he will be handed money to strengthen his squad during the January transfer window and will have no hesitation replacing players if he senses they want to leave Ibrox.
Beale, who was confirmed as Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s replacement on Monday, stressed that he believes he has a good enough squad to beat Celtic to the cinch Premiership title if he has everyone fit.
However, the Englishman, whose team are currently nine points behind the Parkhead club in the table, has stated wants to see a positive attitude in training before the league meeting with Hibernian in Govan on Thursday week.
Winger Ryan Kent and striker Alfredo Morelos are out of contract in the summer and have still to agree extensions to their current deals despite their representatives being involved in talks with Rangers this season.
“I think if everyone is fit and available there’s enough in the building,” said Beale. “You start talking about (Ianis) Hagi, (Tom) Lawrence, (Kemar) Roofe, (Fashion) Sakala, Morelos, Kent, (Scott) Wright, (Malik) Tillman, (Atonio) Colak.
“If I didn’t think we could do it with this group of players, I wouldn’t have come back. And I mean everybody that’s available in our squad. Write our squad down and put it next to our biggest rivals. Okay then, game on.
“I’m watching the World Cup and there are teams who are committed, together and beating sides outside their means. So if you put our two squads together, game on.
“In terms of resources, their spending power has been slightly bigger than ours. We’re not the haves. In that battle, we’re slightly the have nots. So game on.
“The small wins for me at the moment are: ‘Are the players happy, do they know what they’re doing and are they training well?’ If I can’t get those three things right, we’re knackered. We need everyone fit and together.”
Beale added: “At times, we’ll recruit. There will be money available to recruit in January. I’ll be keen to do it if I don’t get the right vibe off one or two players in the squad right now.
“Without mentioning names, I have to get the right vibe off certain players. I have to know they’re still the boy that we recruited to come in. Because if they don’t want to be here, I don’t want them. And I don’t think the club do either.
“Have I got targets already? One or two, but more positional. There’s finance available.”
Beale, who returned to Rangers from Queens Park Rangers and previously worked at Chelsea, Liverpool and Aston Villa, indicated that he will look to the English market for reinforcements after enjoying success with players from his homeland in the past.
“In my time at Rangers under Steven (Gerrard), we knew we didn’t have £5m or £10m to spend on a player,” he said.
“But we knew if the right player was identified in the right position, and the vision we had for the way we play drove the decision.
“A lot of our best signings cost nothing like (Glen) Kamara, (Joe) Aribo and (Calvin) Bassey. They took time to become elite players, but it didn’t cost a lot.
“When the team is playing a certain way and the fans are happy, it’s a nice place to come and play. A lot of players want to come here, a lot of agents ring you.
“Under Steven we knew a lot of players who wanted to come here but we couldn’t always finance it. That’s where we are in the money chain of football, we’re aware of that.
“The cross-border market has been really important to us with Bassey and Aribo. It’s been magnificent for the club this summer in terms of additional revenue.
“Rangers are back to where they’ve desired to be for a number of years now in that sense.”
