Michael Beale: When Rangers could announce new manager, former Steven Gerrard coach heads to Glasgow

Michael Beale could be appointed as the new Rangers boss as early as Monday afternoon.

Queens Park Rangers have given their manager permission to speak to the Ibrox club and the 42-year-old is understood to have travelled to Glasgow to agree a three-and-a-half-year deal. Talks, according to reports, are at an advanced stage with more likely to take place on Monday afternoon with the first-team returning to training ahead of the restart of the Premiership in the middle of December and a friendly with Bayer Leverkusen on the 10th.

Beale emerged as the front runner for the job early on following the dismissal of Giovanni van Bronckhorst. The former Liverpool and Sao Paulo coach remains a popular figure at the club due to his role and influence as a key member of Steven Gerrard’s backroom staff when the Anfield legend won the league title in 2021, while helping transform the state of the club in comparison to when they took over.

The relationship between Beale and sporting director Ross Wilson is believed to be strong with the lure of a return to Rangers very strong. Wolves wanted to appoint Beale as manager earlier this season but he turned them down to stay at QPR. At the time he said: “I’ve been all-in here, I’ve asked other people to be all-in so I can’t be the first person to run away from the ship.” He has, however, not been shy in expressing his love for Rangers, recently referring to Ibrox as “my home”.

Rangers are currently nine points adrift of Celtic and require a rebuild with seven first-team players in the final year of their contract.