Sunderland boss Michael Beale has been told to ‘shut up’ after making a comment about his Rangers spell.
Sunderland have unveiled the 43-year-old Beale as their new head coach.
The former QPR and Rangers boss replaces the well-liked Tony Mowbray who was sacked earlier in the month, with many surprised at the club’s decision to hire Beale.
He has coaching experience with the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, and Aston Villa, though his most recent spell as Rangers boss was widely criticised.
And in his first interview as Sunderland boss, Beale has faced criticism for discussing his time at Ibrox.
Simon Jordan lays into Michael Beale after Rangers comment
Speaking on talkSPORT this morning, pundit Simon Jordan labelled Beale a ‘fool’ after the Sunderland boss highlighted the changes at Rangers as a reason behind his poor tenure.
Jordan said:
“Oh shut up. Shut up and get on with your job. It’s about your failings, it’s not about change. Those that can overcome, can overcome, if a job is bleeding easy everybody would be doing it.
“The reason you got the Rangers job is because you were perceived to be capable. Rangers was a big job, it was a big opportunity, you made a fool of yourself up there, you weren’t very good at it and another guy has gone up there and look what he’s doing with the place.”
Could Sunderland be a better fit for Beale?
On the whole, Rangers and Beale didn’t seem like a great fit.
It was a big step up for Beale who’d only been QPR boss for a few months prior to that, and an assistant coach before.
And this is another big job with big expectations, but Beale could use his contested Rangers experience to his advantage here.
But like Jordan suggests, Beale now needs to put Rangers behind him and focus on the task at hand at Sunderland.
He has a stable backroom and recruitment team behind him at the Stadium of Light and he inherits a strong, in form side from Mowbray and from Mike Dodds, who could play a key role in helping Beale’s Sunderland hit the ground running.
If he fails to do that then it could get pretty testing pretty quickly for Beale, with many thinking he’s beaten some better-suited candidates to the Sunderland job.
Beale has been brought in to coach these players and get them playing a style of play which improves them and makes them more valuable assets.
His style was largely criticised at Rangers along with his recruitment, but with just the coaching side of things to take care of at Sunderland, it could be a better fit for Beale.
His first game in charge comes against Coventry City on Saturday, with kick off at 3pm.