Michael Beale was often lauded as the brains behind Steven Gerrard’s Rangers operation, however, this is doing the former manager a disservice.
The reason that the England and Liverpool legend was employed was because he had stature, gravitas and an aura that the club needed to model itself on.
Michael Beale might have had the coaching nous but Steven Gerrard was the one who commanded respect in the Rangers dressing room and on the training pitch, as revealed by Scott Arfield to The Athletic.
Arfield reveals Steven Gerrard quality as Rangers boss
The 34-year old has settled nicely into MLS Stateside and, reflecting on his time at Rangers, revealed the influence that Steven Gerrard had:
“With Steven, I remember we signed Lassana Coulibaly and we were doing this passing exercise.
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“He was a warrior and all-action but pinging the ball wasn’t his forte. On this particular day, he was to ping it out wide to Borna Barisic.
“He couldn’t do it and Gerrard, without even warming up, just came over and said, ‘Just do this’.
“He hit this diagonal six inches off the ground for about 60 yards, incredible.
“He couldn’t understand how someone couldn’t do that.
“After the first six or seven games I played, he pulled me in and hammered me.
“I thought, ‘Fair play, I get it’, and I went on a run after that.
“He had that switch and there were loads of moments like that, but there were no grudges like with other managers.”
When you hear things like this about Steven Gerrard, you can’t help but think about current Rangers manager Michael Beale.
What is it that he has done that will inspire the players.
He can take a training session, numerous ex-players and fellow coaches will testify to that and he is clearly a student of the game.
But a Rangers manager has to be a leader, by example or by presence.
If Beale doesn’t step up soon, he might not get much longer to prove that he can lead Rangers to success.