Glasgow Rangers head coach Russell Martin is under plenty of external pressure after a difficult start to his time in the dugout at Ibrox this season, with some noticeable booing and chanting at recent games.
The former Southampton boss has failed to win any of his four Scottish Premiership matches in charge of the Light Blues so far, and failed to qualify for the league phase of the Champions League, losing 9-1 to Club Brugge on aggregate.
There is still plenty of time left to see how things pan out, though, because he had 12 summer signings and it will take time to assess whether they were strong additions or not.
Summer transfer windows can make or break managers, as former Rangers head coach Michael Beale found out in the harshest way in 2023.
Michael Beale's worst Rangers deals
Beale signed eight players on permanent deals in the summer of 2023. Jack Butland is the only one of those eight players who started the club’s most recent game against Celtic.
Danilo was signed for £6m from Feyenoord and he has only scored nine goals in 39 appearances in the Scottish Premiership, missing 53 matches through injury in that time, per Transfermarkt.
Sam Lammers arrived from Atalanta for a fee of £3m in the same window. He scored two goals in 31 games for Rangers, per Transfermarkt, before being sold to FC Twente last year.
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As well as making poor signings, Beale also allowed several quality players to leave the club that summer, including electric forward Ryan Kent.
Michael Beale had a howler with Ryan Kent
Despite working with the English winger as Steven Gerrard’s assistant in the past, Beale was unable to get the best out of the former Liverpool man at Ibrox as the head coach.
Kent played 22 times for the English tactician in all competitions in his last season in Glasgow, but only found the back of the net twice in that time, per Transfermarkt.
The left winger was once described as the “Mbappe of Scottish football” by Specs Gonzalez, whilst speaking on Sky Sports, but he was anything but Mbappe-esque under Beale.
Appearances
22
196
Goals
2
31
Games per goal
11
6.32
Assists
4
52
Games per assist
5.5
3.76
As you can see in the table above, Kent was far more prolific and creative throughout his Rangers career without Beale as his head coach, his output with and without him makes that very clear.
IbroxNoise noted at the time that the English forward’s decline under the former assistant manager was because the system being deployed meant that he had to play as a number ten rather than as a winger.
If asked to picture a Ryan Kent goal or assist for Rangers, most supporters would likely picture him on the left flank, cutting in or getting to the byline. The former being what happened in the clip above.
Beale’s wingerless system did him no favours and that was why it was not a surprise when the forward decided to let his contract run down in the summer of 2023, rather than committing his future to the club with his former Liverpool academy coach in charge.
This meant that Rangers lost Kent, a player once compared to Mbappe, for nothing that summer because their manager did not play a system that got the best out of him.
Instead, Beale played a system that attempted to accomodate the three central players he signed, Danilo, Cyriel Dessers, and Lammers. Only one of those three players remains at Ibrox, Danilo, and he looks set to be a back-up to Bojan Miovski and Youssef Chermiti this season.
Therefore, Beale had a howler with Kent because he did not find a way to get the best out of a player who could have been a huge threat for his side down the left flank, given his return of goals and assists in his career at Rangers prior to the manager’s appointment.
