Former Celtic striker Chris Sutton has taken aim at the sacked Rangers manager, Michael Beale. The Englishman was given his marching orders after Rangers were defeated for the third time in the league this season on Saturday to Aberdeen.
Sutton responded quickly on Twitter/X, referring to Beale as a comedy act – a retort based on language previously used by the axed coach.
There are some managers that are comedy acts…
— Chris Sutton (@chris_sutton73) October 1, 2023
Now, the Premier League winner-turned-pundit, explained the tweet to Mail Sport’s footballing podcast while opining why the ex-QPR boss lost his job at Ibrox.
“It was a play on words with Michael Beale, the former Rangers manager. He dug me out. That was based on, me being a little bit petty. He dug me out, he said some ex-players are comedy acts, that was aimed at me and let’s look at what has happened now. The job was too big for him.
“He said I was Chelsea’s worst-ever player. He was a Chelsea fan as a boy, I think he played for Charlton Under-14s. He never won anything and still hasn’t won anything. He must have some sort of talent as a coach, I think this is a life lesson for Michael Beale. He should have learned lessons from across the city, from Ange Postecoglou, who he called ‘lucky Ange’. He made that comment about him when he was Celtic manager. Celtic will feel they were ‘lucky Celtic’ when Beale was at Rangers because recently they have wiped the floor with them.
“The defeat to Aberdeen was the end. When fans turn, and they really turned on him after losing to Celtic – seven games isn’t a lot. But there was also a Champions League qualifier where PSV wiped the floor with them. It was sort of like a London cockney car salesman going up there with all the chat, promising a Ferrari and he got a spluttering three-wheeler.
“He talked too much. The most important currency is winning. The Glasgow goldfish bowl swallowed him up. He went in and was bullish, trying to appease the Rangers fans. I didn’t like the way he seemed to be taking great credit from Steven Gerrard’s Rangers title success, he was the coach, they thought he was the brains behind the operation. He got away with things last season because it wasn’t his team, his recruitment … the fact that they’ve made that call tells you the Rangers hierarchy don’t trust him.
“Any manager who goes up to a game when another manager is in a job as van Bronckhorst was, Beale went up and he knew van Bronckhorst was under severe pressure, anybody who does that deserves everything they get. He talks about integrity – that was awful. He knew what he was doing and got what was coming to him.”
Van Bronkhorst came across well, for a Rangers manager, and a Scottish Cup success as well as a Europa League Final should’ve been revered by the club. However, Beale’s comments in the media that disrespected both Ange Postecoglou and GVB. As it transpired, he could not back it up and was beaten in all the games that mattered.
Sutton is usually quite fair-handed with his comments and Beale’s comments towards him were nothing more than pettiness to garner some respect from the Ibrox support.
It appeared inevitable that Beale was making a rod for his own back and this would result in his eventual demise when things went wrong. Comments to appease the fan base about Celtic, Ange Postecoglou, referees and the squad meant that he was given ample backing. Regrettably for Beale, he got the players that he wanted and they weren’t much better than the players that didn’t want to play for him.
