Michael Beale has been limited to picking Tom Lawrence’s brains since taking over at Rangers.
But the Light Blues boss is looking forward to the fast-approaching day when he’ll be able to pick the injured Ibrox ace for his new-look line-up. The former Derby skipper hasn’t kicked a ball for the team he joined last summer since injuring knee ligaments back in August.
Encouraged by a string of promising early displays for the man who signed him Gio van Brockhorst, the Ibrox faithful were initially reassured his lay off would only keep him out a couple of weeks. But it’s been one thing and after another for the Welshman and he’s now not expected back until after Beale’s squad gather for pre-season at the start of July.
It’s an old cliche but for Van Bronckhorst’s replacement, Lawrence’s return is already being looked at with the same excitement he’s reserving for the raft of new signings due to be arriving this summer. In the meantime, new Rangers gaffer Beale has made sure to keep the 29-year-old clued in on the plans for his Rangers rebuild.
Those discussion have also involved Beale asking Lawrence for his own take on why things have go so badly for a team he’s now spent nine months studying from the stands.
He might qualify as the forgotten man of Ibrox but Beale wants Lawrence to know that while he’s out of sight he’s certainly not out of mind, with his name earmarked for a key role once he’s back up and running. Beale said: “The first thing you do [when you take over as manager] is make him aware that you know him as a player and he knows that because we played against each other a lot.
“You let him know he is valued and you ask him for an opinion from watching from the outside. And, as he gets closer, then you start talking about the way we are going to play and where he fits in.
“I don’t think that was the right thing to do early in his injury. We have had that conversation in the last couple of weeks because now we are talking about what he is coming back to.
“You can see that his whole personality is changing now because he is back in rehab and starting to move in the right direction.”
Lawrence has been a rarely sighted figure at the club’s Auchenhowie training base for much of his lay off having been given permission to carry out the bulk of his rehab work south of the border beside his family. But Beale is looking forward to having him around the place next term.
“His family are based in Manchester and he moved here on his own to play for Rangers,” he explained. When you are not playing I think it’s important you have your family around you. So it’s been a mixture of being here for what he needs working and having his support network around him when he needs it.
“Tom is a player that started last season ever so well. He came in as an important signing, and an experienced member of the squad. He didn’t come in to be a player for the future, he came to be a ‘now’ player.
“He started the season really well, he was important in the PSV games for example. And then he got a horrific injury. He was on his way back from that and had some complications from that.
“I expect him to be back probably a couple of weeks into pre-season. Either at the same time as everybody else or a couple of weeks behind. But having said that he needs to make up maybe eight or 10 months.
“He will be a really important player because he is a player I haven’t had and Gio didn’t have for a long period either. He has been lost.”
Lawrence isn’t the only senior figure that’s been badly missed this year.
Every Saturday Beale turns round from his spot on the Ibrox touchline and peer up to seats in the Bill Struth Main Strand reserved for players not in the match-day squad.
Where he’d prefer those seats were filled by fringe men and kids, he’s been met with sight of big-earning first-team stars like Kemar Roofe and Filip Helander. Beale knows that situation cannot be repeated next season.
“It’s been like that,” groaned the Londoner. “Helander was so important to us. Roofe was so important to us. Roofe has played twice since I came back and scored in both games. He’s just not been available.
“We lost key players in my opinion, key athleticism in Joe Aribo, Calvin Bassey and Nathan Patterson. For good money, but we lost key players. Leon Balogun was a big influence, Jermain Defoe was a big influence, Helander, Roofe. We brought Lawrence in to be a big influence.
“So we need to clean that up for sure. We need to have our strongest, oldest, most experienced players available more often next year, playing with a bit more consistency and a slightly tighter squad.
“And then we will see where it takes us. The challenges will still be the same, the pressures and the expectations are maybe going to be a little bit higher. It is an exciting time because it’s a time of change and I’m going into it with real optimism.”
READ NEXT
