Beale 2.0: Stewart set to hold talks with "important" manager for Rangers
da doce： Glasgow Rangers are at a crossroads. They have just ended the season without a trophy and are currently without a manager after Barry Ferguson’s interim term ended.
da dobrowin： The Light Blues ended the campaign in second place in the Scottish Premiership, drawing 2-2 with Hibernian on the final day, and failed to win either of the domestic cup competitions.
CEO Patrick Stewart is conducting a process to find the next head coach before sporting director Kevin Thelwell arrives, and before the takeover is completed, and is reportedly planning talks with a candidate.
Rangers planning talks with Italian coach
According to RangersReview, former Real Madrid assistant manager Davide Ancelotti is set to hold further talks with the Light Blues in the coming days.
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Stewart is set to hold talks with the coach about the vacant position at Ibrox, after the Italian tactician waved goodbye to Real Madrid’s supporters after their final game of the season against Real Sociedad in LaLiga on Saturday.
RangersReview adds that the reports elsewhere that Ancelotti was close to becoming the new head coach in Glasgow are premature, and that the state of play is that he will have further discussions with the club before a decision is made.
The Gers, however, must be wary of how much of a gamble this appointment would be ahead of the 2025/26 campaign, as the Italian coach could be Michael Beale 2.0.
Why Ancelotti could be the next Beale
Rangers turned to Beale as their new head coach in November 2022 after they made the decision to part ways with experienced boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
The English tactician had, of course, been the assistant to Steven Gerrard when the Light Blues won the Scottish Premiership title in the 2020/21 campaign, but had only had 22 games of senior managerial experience with QPR in England before his move back to Ibrox.
Beale came as a highly-rated coach, having worked on the training pitch to deliver that title success at Rangers, but ultimately failed to translate his skills over to being the main man, as he lasted less than a year in the job and left in October 2023 with no trophies to show for his efforts.
Davide Ancelotti’s coaching career
Club (role)
First-team manager
Matches
Real Madrid (Assistant manager)
Carlo Ancelotti
233
Everton (Assistant manager)
Carlo Ancelotti
67
Napoli (Assistant manager)
Carlo Ancelotti
73
Bayern Munich (Assistant manager)
Carlo Ancelotti
60
Real Madrid (Fitness coach)
Carlo Ancelotti
119
PSG (Fitness coach)
Carlo Ancelotti
77
Stats via Transfermarkt
As you can see in the table above, Ancelotti’s entire career to date has been spent as either a fitness coach or as an assistant manager to his dad, Carlo Ancelotti, at various European clubs.
The Italian coach, who was described as “important” by his father, is in a similar position to the one Beale was in at the time of his move to QPR, a perennial assistant manager and highly-rated coach.
But, as Beale showcased at Rangers and then Sunderland, a good assistant manager and coach does not guarantee that they will be a good head coach or manager.
Therefore, Stewart and the Gers must have full confidence in his ability to lead and manager the club as the main man, because he has yet to prove that he can do it as a head coach in his own right, which is why appointing him would be a big risk and potentially a repeat of Beale.
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