Rangers close to appointing Michael Beale as new manager

QPR boss Michael Beale is closing on a return to Ibrox as manager of Rangers.

The 42-year-old was granted permission to talk to the Scottish club after they made their approach official on Friday and Beale is expected in Glasgow on Monday to finalise the deal.

As Sportsmail revealed on Saturday, Beale has already been speaking to senior Ibrox players about the possibility of a return to the club where he served as assistant to Steven Gerrard.

It is understood that he is keen on making the move which would cost Rangers £1.5million in compensation.

Rangers have been granted permission to speak to QPR manager Michael Beale

During his time at Ibrox with Gerrard, they won the league title before the pair moved on to Aston Villa last year.

Beale went his own way in the summer by taking charge at Loftus Road, where he currently has QPR in seventh place in the Championship.

On Sunday night former Ross County boss Stuart Kettlewell said the expected appointment of Beale to the Ibrox hotseat made sense despite his limited experience as a manager.

‘I can see a lot of reasons why he would be the top candidate,’ he told BBC Scotland.

Rangers are looking to replace Giovanni van Bronckhorst after sacking him earlier this week

‘I’ve had the pleasure of sitting in on a presentation he gave and he’s a very impressive guy with his experiences in football; coaching in Brazil and the fact that he’s been at some big clubs down south and held a role at Rangers and Aston Villa, and now he’s taken the leap into management himself.

‘Michael Beale doesn’t have massive experience of being the main man.

‘But he’s obviously shown enough in his time at Rangers to impress the people in high places that he’s capable of doing that.’ 

Beale would be returning to Rangers after working as Steven Gerrard’s assistant manager