There are many ways to describe Micky Beale with arrogance and a complete lack of self-awareness at the top of the list.
After a lifetime of complete neglect he found himself in the spotlight at Ibrox last November with a drooling media hanging on his every word. And there were lots.
His predecessor Giovanni van Bronckhorst said very little to the media, there was a hint of disdain but professionalism from the Dutchman who had been in the spotlight for more than 25 years.
Not Beale. He was going for 56, restoring suits on matchdays and uber staunch as he played on the heart-strings of supporters dismayed at how Ange Postecoglou had destroyed the dreams hatched during Lockdown as they watched success on a stream.
With the fans back Celtic grew in strength, at Ibrox Steven Gerrard was looking for an escape route, like Beale he failed to see out 12 months as his peers exposed his complete lack of managerial ability.
Following Beale’s Directors Box appearance to undermine van Bronckhorst last October he decided to share his arrogance on The Curry Club on BT Sport.
Apparently the SPFL was about four matches a season, appropriately after dismissing Kilmarnock and Aberdeen defeats to both of those clubs contributed greatly to Beale’s downfall, plus his own obvious lack of talent.
here’s a clip from the podcast for anyone interested. pic.twitter.com/ZubWgyRUai
— Aaron (@Aaron72__) September 30, 2023
Do I think we could have taken it forward? I definitely think we would have won the league. When we left, we were still four points in front. There is no way they (Celtic) would have come past us.
“We hadn’t lost in eight or nine Old Firms (it was actually seven). The next one was maybe in the post because in a two-horse competition anyone can win in any derby. But the games weren’t particularly close. They might have been in the scoreline but when you were in the stadium, we were very much in control of every game.
What I would say is that the manager who went in (Postecoglou) is a very, very good manager and a very good coach. They were going to improve, but so were we. We weren’t planning on standing still. We’d evolved subtly over time. The mentality at the time was no one was stopping us.
Kenny Miller say motionless through that clip, even someone immersed in Ibrox culture knows that there are more than four games a season that decided the SPFL title.
With the Brains Behind Gerrard in the dug out Dundee United beat the Ibrox club while Motherwell, Aberdeen and Hearts took points from Ibrox before the bright lights of Aston Villa came calling.
Returning to Ibrox last November Beale inherited a nine point gap with three Glasgow Derbies still to be played. On May 7 Celtic went 13 points clear with four matches left to play, after beating Beale’s side at Hampden in both cup competitions.
After being exposed and sacked at Ibrox Beale will have to lie low for a few months then surface with some sob stories about injuries and bad refereeing decisions.
He won’t mention the fact that in his 10 months in charge at Ibrox no penalties were awarded against his club- yet he left them trailing St Mirren in the race to stop Celtic winning another SPFL title.
1 Comment
by Jimmy McGregor
Mickey beale. What a guy eh?