Michael Beale has revealed he urged Fashion Sakala to accept a big money offer from Saudi Arabia despite ‘counting on’ him to be part of his Rangers plans this term.
The striker confirmed his departure from Ibrox on Monday evening as he bid an emotional farewell on social media and jetted out to put pen-to-paper on a deal with Al-Fayha.
Rangers announced the completion of the switch on Tuesday night and have banked a fee in the region of £4million for Sakala.
And Beale believes the incentives on offer were too great for the Zambian to turn down as he left Ibrox having scored 24 goals in 91 appearances for the club.
Beale said: “Fashion Sakala is very close to moving to a team in Saudi. He was a player I was counting on, a boy I had a really close relationship with, maybe even stronger than with anyone else in the group.
“He’s done very well for us and the strength of the relationship was probably important because the offer for him and his family I felt was a very good one. We spoke at length about it and he leaves with everyone’s well wishes.
“He’ll always be invited back to Rangers but financially that was an offer for Fashion and his family that he should have taken and he has done now.”
Beale confirmed that there had been no update on Glen Kamara’s future as half-a-dozen clubs from across the continent keep tabs on the midfielder this summer.
Defender Ridvan Yilmaz will miss the visit of Servette in the Champions League and is not expected to return to action until the Viaplay Cup clash with Morton.
But Ben Davies is due back in the coming days as Rangers continue to move through a hectic fixture schedule that started with their shock Premiership defeat to Kilmarnock on Saturday.
Beale said: “Ben will return to training probably Tuesday or Wednesday next week.
“At this moment of time, Ben is still not available for selection. For this round, you only have to pick the European squad for the next two weeks.
“Tom Lawrence hasn’t featured for a long time, Kemar Roofe is only just back in and we can’t keep selecting him for a game every two or three days if he’s going to pick up on his fitness.
“Ben wasn’t available. Rabbi actually got injured the day we submitted the squad so that was really unlucky.”
