Beale ditches his wonder boy from Champions League squad

Micky Beale has pushed Ianis Hagi towards the Ibrox exit door by ditching him from his UEFA squad.

The lack of home developed players has restricted Beale’s options with Rabbi Matondo replacing Hagi in the squad to face PSV Eindhoven in a Champions League Play Off.

Beale devised some wonderful training drills for Hagi during his first stint as a coach then rewarded the midfielder with a new contract in January when he took over as manager.

Naturally he has a wonderful relationship with the boy on a personal level but when it comes to picking his team Hagi is generally the last resort.

Signing up Todd Cantwell, Nico Raskin, Jose Cifuentes, Sam Lammers and Kieran Dowell as well as giving Ryan Jack a new contract is quite a statement with Hagi’s agent working on an Ibrox escape route.

Listening to Beale’s pre-match media conference the Daily Record reports Beale saying:

I have no issue with Ianis. He did well at the weekend. He wants to play as a starter and we might look at that before the window closes. He is competing with (Todd) Cantwell and (Sam) Lammers here. Ianis has worked very hard over the summer to be fit.

He isn’t at an optimal fitness level yet. He wants to play week in week out and that isn’t guaranteed at Rangers. Ianis and his agent have been looking at things in the last week or so and have had an ongoing discussion. We can’t guarantee him first team football here and no one is.

Ianis spoke after three or four days of pre-season about how he had missed a year. I brought Ianis back into the team against Partick Thistle last year very early into his rehab and it was clear at that moment that he wasn’t ready. Over the summer, he’s worked really hard to be fit.

With barely any playing time since December 2021 it is unlikely that any offers will come in to buy Hagi, like Glen Kamara a loan move in the final two days of the transfer window is the most likely solution.

The usual suspects with their Romanian media sources are bound to link Hagi Jr with Real Madrid and Manchester City before he moves to a struggling side in Italy or Turkey.