Two events happened this week, on the same day, that might have been unrelated but which I found strange nonetheless. The Ibrox club announced its new head of PR and Media, a former Labour MSP who the press was at great pains to tell us was an “arch unionist” and had already helped the club out in its battles against the SNP.
The other was that Andy Halliday made the papers, briefly, when he said that he had spoken to people at Ibrox who had revealed to him that Michael Beale had “gone mental” in the Ibrox dressing room in the aftermath of the game on Monday.
What connects these two stories? Perhaps nothing, but the Halliday story was barely up online but it was taken down again. It vanished, completely, from the Daily Record website and that of its sister publication Football Scotland.
So did the Ibrox PR guy have a busy first day, or did someone at the paper decide, on their own, that the story served no purpose?
I know this; we were not supposed to know that little bit of information and neither are the club’s fans because they might be concerned if they did. That was a story that was never meant to get out, which is why it so swiftly disappeared.
If The Mooch is already going tonto at his players, then he’s fraying already. If he’s winning manager of the month awards and losing his nut like this, then can you imagine what their players will have to listen to when they are in a bad patch?
I cannot believe that there are still some people in football who think that this old-school “scream at them until they break” stuff still works in the modern game.
People zone out to that nonsense after a while and it breeds resentment in the dressing room. It does not inspire people to work harder or do more on the pitch. Players feel like they are being blamed for bad tactical decisions and the manager’s own faults.
Players have no faith in guys who feel like they have to act that way to get their point across and win over a dressing room.
Rule by fear is probably the bluntest instrument in the managerial toolbox and it’s a fairly ineffective one, and it comes as no surprise to learn that this is how he goes about his business.
In his early hatchet-piece, when speculation was rife but before The Mooch was appointed, Keith Jackson said that certain people in the dressing room had been pleased to see the back of him and were by no means looking forward to his return.
If he’s already resorting to this then you know how limited his thinking is. If he’s resorting to this he’s already bailing out his sinking ship and eventually all the buckets in the world aren’t going to get the job done. Remember what I wrote before he was appointed; very often with this stuff, the end is in the beginning. So it will be here.
There’s more to this story for sure, but there’s also a huge distinction that should be made here. If he was merely frustrated that the team threw away 2 points late in the game, fair enough. He’s not the first, second, or even third manager who’s lost points against us in the dying minutes of a game this year. What would be damaging to him is if he was taking that frustration out on his players and pointing fingers behind the scenes. We haven’t seen evidence of that – yet – but maybe that will arrive when tomorrow’s starting lineup is announced. There’s a time and place for the Fergie hairdryer treatment, and used sparingly it can be effective. The fifth game into his tenure is way too early IMO, and he better hope that his team continues to collect 3 points every week so he doesn’t have to utilize it more often.
Losing it? No mate, he never had it to begin with.
I know you call him The Mooch, but he reminded me of something I couldn’t quite put my finger on until I saw him on TV tonight.
It’s the old VIZ character Cockney Wanker.
He is C.W. to a tee.
Step forward Mickey Beale……. you ARE Cockney Wanker!
Mickey Beale tried to emulate Ange by putting it out there that he wanted to meet prospective signees in the eye. Ange as we’ve learned likes to take the man as much as the player.
Mickey ” The Hypnotist” Beale would be a great AKA.
Look into my eyes, look into my eyes, sign up to the Ibrox Carnival.
You always slate stories from “ insiders” at Celtic so why believe and highlight stories like this?
Pretty sure some pish from Keevins will be next.
He’s entitled to go ballistic at a slack defence who allowed Celtic to steal their thunder so late in the game. That is perfectly acceptable and indeed expected under those circumstances, I don’t see it as the beginning of the end whatsoever, the unravelling is still to come, and hopefully it will start with a defeat at Tannadice today.
Why not ask PMcG who, allegedly, has a few spies in their camp?
Michael Beale should stop talking and just get on with managing a “football team”. But he just can’t help himself everytime he speaks he sounds more and more like a former manager of that club who went by the name of “PEDRO” ha ha ha
Mikey Speale thinks he’s being clever making snide comments about Ange and the other club.
Fits well into that cesspit of a club.
GVB did well to get out loaded….to much of a gentleman, no matter what the result, always honest and respectful to other managers.
Beales just a London Barrowboy wideo no class.
todays footballers don’t accept the hair dryer treatment anymore , it leaves them full of resentment and fearful where his next target will be , it’s a very serious flaw for any one involved with people management , it ended roy keanes career as a manager , maybe he’s progressed under M O N , but beale is going down the wrong road with those tactics , maybe that’s all he knows , he’s smarmy enough with the media as you can see his ears flapping with the sound of his own voice been heard first for a change