Michael Beale 'takes soundings from Rangers players' as potential fallback option in Brazil revealed

QPR manager Michael Beale is expected to become the new manager of Rangers.

The current Queen’s Park Rangers boss has been the overwhelming favourite to take over at Rangers since Giovanni van Bronckhorst was sacked on Monday morning. The English Championship club are resigned to losing Beale to the Glasgow outfit, with Beale expected to give his final answer to the Ibrox board over the weekend. The Daily Mail reports that Beale has already spoken to some of the players at Rangers to find out the lie of the land.

The first-team squad reports back to training on Monday and Rangers would like to have their new manager in place then so he can meet the players formally. They are not back in competitive action until Thursday, December 15 when they face Hibs in the cinch Premiership but do have a friendly against Bayer Leverkusen the weekend before. Beale knows the landscape at Ibrox well, having served under Steven Gerrard as a coach for three years, but he recently turned down an approach by Wolves to stay “loyal” to QPR. However, the lure of Rangers is likely to prove crucial and he is set to leave Loftus Road after just four months and 22 games in charge.

However, Rangers have reportedly drawn up a plan B should the chase for Beale falter, with Botafogo manager Luis Castro named as one of the managers on standby. Brazilian media reports claim that the Ibrox outfit have officially approached them to speak to the Portuguese coach.