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The National (Scotland)
The National (Scotland)
Sport
Ewan Paton

Rangers' recruitment main focus for Michael Beale with season now over

Michael Beale was pleased to sign off the season with a comfortable victory over St Mirren.

The Rangers boss insists any experience against the Buddies has been a tough one during his time at the Ibrox club. 

But they took care of Stephen Robinson's men with ease, thanks to a Fashion Sakala double and one from Antonio Colak.

"Barring a moment at the end on Wednesday the split has been good," Beale said. "It’s always a difficult place to come here, they’re resolute and Stephen has them organised, they’ve had good home form.

"We felt we’d need lots of possession in the game and be patient, we tried something new with Fashion and Rabbi playing really high and wide and our full-backs flatter. That’s how the goal comes. Ridvan and Fashion actually share a car into training every day which is quite a strange combination but they’re obviously bringing that friendship onto the pitch. It was a fantastic pass from Ridvan, I think he’s showed fantastic promise in the last few weeks.

"A mention for John Souttar who’s played three games this week and been outstanding. He’s a player we’ve not had all season. I was pleased for Antonio to score; we want to pride ourselves on set-plays, and we’ve scored a number of those now.

"He needs to stay fit, the reality is when I came in November he was injured and he’s had a couple of other injuries since then. In that position you want someone sharp and alert, at his best he is that. The game away at Hibs was the only time I’ve felt since I’ve been here he’s been fully fit. He was fantastic in that game.

"At other times we’ve had to look for alternatives and Fashion has had to play more as a striker where there’s more focus on him when he’s more of a wide player. He’s been hugely effective in my time here as well."

On the summer rebuild, Beale admitted the last few weeks have been the busiest of his career.

He continued: "I’ve not been shocked by anything because I was here before. The added responsibility and time off the pitch managing other areas and doing the recruitment has been busy.

"I’m glad the end of the season is here to be honest because I just have that to focus on, but we’re really in a good place with that and just waiting for one or two things to be signed off. Then we will start to see a new Rangers team come together.

"Albeit with a team that's got over 90 points this year when we haven’t done that too often in the last 15/20 years. Again, everything is broken at Rangers [from the outside] so I’m looking forward to mending it because that’s the perception and I’m not sure it’s quite true.

"The team who won the league this year deserved to and they’ve been the outstanding team but our record has been a strong one and I believe [we're] adding to an already good team."

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