No clean slate for Michael Beale as Rangers manager admits what his new-look team 'can't afford' to do

Rangers manager Michael Beale is convinced a squad rebuild plan he has been working on for eight months means the club are in good shape for the immediately challenges ahead in the new season. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

A new Rangers squad may have been assembled for Michael Beale to work with.

The Englishman doesn’t pretend that means the campaign his club will kick-off in travelling to Kilmarnock on Saturday evening for their Premiership opener represents the true start of his tenure. The 42-year-old may have inherited a playing pool that was draining of inspiration when he replaced Giovanni van Bronckhorst last December. Title prospects having then gone down the plughole with Celtic having opened up a nine-point Premiership lead. He may subsequently have been responsible for initiating a flush of vigour into their league form, while being undone by his club’s bitter rivals in both cup competitions. That can feel in the dim and distant past courtesy of Rangers’ summer signing spree, ramped up this week with the additions of £5.2million Brazilian striker Danilo and Colombian midfielder Jose Cifuentes – to add to attacking recruits Cyriel Dessers, Sam Lammers, Aballah Sima, midfielder Kieran Dowell, defender Dujon Sterling and keeper Jack Butland. Yet this doesn’t add up to the real beginning of the Beale era for that man himself. One that sees Swiss side Servette hosted in the Ibrox club’s crucial Champions League third qualifying round first leg on Wednesday.

The Rangers manager recognises he doesn’t have the luxury of a clean slate, even as unstinting backing from his board with nearly £16m invested in additions has allowed him to appear to have that in theory. The past, present and future are all in the mix as he must avoid any early missteps even as he is still bedding in a host of unfamiliar players. Cifuentes unlikely to be considered for a Rugby Park start through hardly being over his jetlag in arriving from Los Angeles only on Thursday afternoon.

“My era started in December when I came in, I don’t want to back off from that,” he said. “We had some really good performances and results in the 29 games, and two or three really disappointing days. This squad now is about setting the club up for the future. You want to set the club up – and that’s anyone who works for it – to make it stronger and better. I think the contract situation with these players, and their age and level in coming in, the squad looks really healthy at the moment. If you look at it on paper, the squad obviously has a big ambition and we’ll have to go one game at a time.

“In terms of the board, I think they liked the plan. If the plan wasn’t a good plan, I don’t think the backing would be there for any manager. So you have to sit with the board, you have to understand each other and where the club wants to go, and I think this summer we saw an opportunity to recruit some players we think can go quite a long way with us.”

Rangers must make good immediately on plans initially worked on last January. Van Bronckhorst was living on borrowed time from early November last season because of results at home and abroad – even as he had delivered the club Champions League football to Ibrox for the first time in 11 years. “For me, each season is different. What I do know is that you can’t afford too many slip-ups,” said Beale. “Our away form was strong last year and it is important that we start well, for sure.” The alternative is frankly unthinkable for the Englishman.