The news out of Saudi shows how badly the media botched The Beale Myth. Celtic fans are laughing at them.

There’s an interesting piece of news out of Saudi Arabia today, and it’s worth discussing for a few reasons. I’ll start with a couple of minor points before getting into the main one.

Michael Beale has been hired by Steven Gerrard to work with him at his club over there. The general perception was that Gerrard was close to being sacked, but if he’s been allowed to bring in his former assistant, it suggests he’s convinced the club hierarchy that he can still turn things around.

Personally, I don’t believe it for a second. The myth of Gerrard’s managerial ability is crumbling fast, and anyone at Ibrox clamouring for his return should take a long, hard look at what he’s done since leaving and why he’s now managing in a league like that.

No one seems to care that his time at Aston Villa was short-lived or that he was never likely to get another top-flight English job. Instead, he ended up where his reputation as a player is the only thing keeping him relevant. Serious managers don’t go to leagues like that to build a career.

What Gerrard’s latest move does show is that his club isn’t done with him yet. But bringing Beale back into the fold is hardly a masterstroke—it’s a desperate move by a man trying to cling to what little remains of his credibility. Gerrard appears to have convinced his employers that his previous success came with Beale by his side, and it’s astonishing he’s been able to sell that idea.

It also drags back into the spotlight one of the more ludicrous theories ever pushed by the Scottish media: the Michael Beale Theory. This was the idea that Beale was the tactical mastermind and Gerrard just a glossy frontman. It’s incredible that Gerrard himself is now leaning on that narrative to keep his job. Because when you’ve resorted to saying that someone else was the key to your success and that you need them to replicate it, you’re finished.

The problem is, the Beale bubble has already burst, and it was Celtic who popped it. That theory was nonsense from the start. It was pushed when Gerrard left, and people began to tout Beale as a future Ibrox manager. Suddenly, everything good that happened at Ibrox was attributed to Beale, while Gerrard became a liability holding him back.

Beale arrived at Ibrox with a reputation he had done nothing to earn. He had no managerial experience, no track record to speak of. The media built him up as some sort of prodigy, a tactical genius poised to lead Ibrox to glory. It didn’t take long for reality to set in. His football was dreadful—uninspired, long-ball stuff that was painful to watch.

I remember being asked during Brendan Rodgers’ first season back what I thought of the challenge we’d face under Beale. I said then that there wasn’t a challenge and that I wasn’t the least bit concerned. I didn’t think he had the faintest clue what he was doing, and his team reflected that. His signings were suited to a direct, physical style of play, completely devoid of skill or imagination.

It seemed obvious that once Brendan settled in, Celtic would leave Beale in the dust, and that’s exactly what happened. By the time we were done with him, even the media had stopped pretending he was anything special. They went from hyping him as a genius to wondering aloud how long he’d last.

But here’s the thing: they never admitted they got it wrong. They never said, “We completely misjudged this guy.” Instead, they quietly buried him. Beale’s brief stints at QPR and Sunderland only reinforced what we already knew—he wasn’t cut out for management. Now, unsurprisingly, he’s back to being an assistant.

What’s laughable is how the media has pivoted. After spending a year insisting Beale was the brains behind Gerrard’s success, they’re now back to calling Gerrard a genius and ignoring the obvious contradictions in their narrative.

Let’s be clear: Gerrard’s reputation as a manager was already in tatters before he went to Saudi Arabia. The idea that he stopped Celtic’s 10 in a row through sheer brilliance is absurd. That was a season where our own mistakes played as big a role as anything he did. The notion that he would have built a dynasty with more support is just as ridiculous.

What we’re seeing now in Saudi Arabia is the last gasp of two desperate men trying to salvage their reputations. Beale knows he’s finished as a head coach; Gerrard is hanging on by a thread. Both have been thoroughly exposed—not just by what happened in Scotland but by what’s happened since.

And yet, the Scottish media keeps spinning these fantasies. They don’t just create their own reality; they reshape it whenever it suits them. They’re doing it now with Nils Koppen, calling his appointment a masterstroke because he says the Ibrox club should compete for every trophy, as if that’s some groundbreaking statement.

The media never asks the hard questions. They’re too busy running puff pieces to realise they’re being played for fools. Even former players like Kris Boyd and Barry Ferguson, hardly the sharpest minds, are raising doubts about Koppen’s credentials. When those two are the ones asking sensible questions, you know the media has truly hit rock bottom.

What we have now is a perfect example of the media’s refusal to learn. They’re quick to spin a narrative but never admit when they’ve been wrong. The Gerrard-Beale saga is just the latest chapter in their long history of hyping up mediocrity, only to pivot when the story inevitably falls apart.

No wonder Celtic fans are laughing at all this.