Why Rangers boss is looking forward to Kyle Lafferty reunion - 'one of the best first sessions I have ever seen'

A reunion with Kilmarnock striker Kyle Lafferty for Michael Beale courtesy of Wednesday’s Rugby Park encounter calls to mind a special memory of “the Rangers man”.

Kilmarnock striker Kyle Lafferty's first training session of his second Rangers spell is seared in the memory of Michael Beale. (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)

The striker’s frustrating second spell at his boyhood team that proved a single season was the product of being recruited by Steven Gerrard in August 2018 when Beale was his first-team coach. But first impressions have proved lasting for the now Ibrox manager.

“Listen, Laff is a great lad,” he said of the frontman, who returned in Saturday’s Viaplay Cup semi-final defeat to Celtic following a ten-game ban for a sectarian slur. “We really enjoyed working together. He had one of the best first sessions I have ever seen from a football player. He came in and everything he hit went in and we thought ‘who have we signed here?’ He was fighting for playing time alongside Alfredo [Morelos] and Jermain Defoe at the time. I remember him scoring a famous goal away at Villarreal [in a 2-2 Europa League draw in September 2018], and that added to his second time having done very well first time.

“I am looking forward to seeing him because he is a good guy. He has had a tough time of late, he has been punished and missed a lot of football and now I am sure he will be happy to be back playing to try and put that behind him and move forward. [He can be a big game player but] it’s whether he deems it a big game or, as a Rangers man, he wants to not see as big … no, listen, all jokes aside, Laff has been really good player in his career, he was an important player for Kilmarnock coming up last season. I think they have missed him.”