Is he a better manager than Davie Martindale? Angry bears turn on Mister Beale

When you are as insecure as Micky Beale it is inevitable that you’ll be checking social media.

For nine months the former QPR boss has been in his element, explaining everyfing that he finks about while constantly name dropping about his incredible experiences and contacts across the game.

Watching the nodding dog reactions would have convinced Beale of his own brilliance. After a playing career that never got beyond the Charlton youth team he slipped into kids coaching, as recently as 2015 he was in charge of the Liverpool u-5s training schedules.

During his short spell managing QPR he found the Scottish media keen to latch on to his progress, drooling over his Ibrox memoires, recalling laying out the cones and bibs for Gary McAllister worked a treat.

With Giovanni van Bronckhorst in bother the bold Beale tested the water and was amazed at the reaction.

Dropping in to the Louden Tavern and Grapes Bar he sampled the hero worship that he had been denied all his life. In the Directors Box undermining van Bronckhorst he was met with warm smiles and tight handshakes, it is little wonder that he returned to QPR feeling a warm fuzz. QPR’s form bombed after that social visit.

Throughout the summer every signing conjured up by Beale was presented with top spin, even three strikers that had been relegated last season who had scored less goals combined than Antonio Colak.

Beale must have thought that he could do nothing wrong but then came Kilmarnock- playing in front of an audience that was banking on a treble at least.

In a strange twist, on Saturday a real true blue will be visiting Ibrox, not in the Lounden or Directors Box but in the away dug-out, pitting his wits against Beale’s Revolution, one without width or pace which will suit wee Davie’s plans just fine.

Martindale will talk up Mister Beale and Tav does before Saturday’s match but the game presents him with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Strike a fatal blow to Beale in front of the Ibrox big-wigs while 50,000 bears scream for change to bring in someone that understands the club and their delusions.

Behind Beale’s impressive stats last season were so many painful, laboured victories that he got away with on the premise of ‘wait till next season’.

Next season arrived at Kilmarnock on Saturday and there was nothing there.

No playing style, no shape or tactics, no width or pace. The new recruits flopped, went into their shells leaving Tav, Goldson and Lundstram to turn it round. Good luck with that!

Last autumn van Bronckhorst was getting slaughtered, already some realism is being applied. If the same standards that pushed the Dutchman out the door are used on Beale the omens are bleak, Gary Mac’s assistant isn’t going to reach a European final or win a domestic cup in the next few months.

He can reach the group stage of the Champions League but if he falls short on that front he’ll be surviving game by game until he delivers the trophies that were being counted on as recently as Friday.