Sunderland look set to hire Michael Beale, his former colleague and Premier League star, Steven Gerrard has previously commented on the qualities Beale has.
It has been two weeks since Tony Mowbray departed Sunderland and there is still yet to be a manager in the hot seat.
There have been links to Will Still but following his comments this weekend, that move doesn’t appear to be likely.
Now multiple reports suggest that Michael Beale is set to make a move to the North East after being sacked by Rangers.
With spells as assistant manager at Aston Villa and then first-team manager at QPR, he does have experience in England.
It has been suggested by Graham Souness that he may find the job just as difficult as he did in the Scottish Premier League.
With his potential appointment coming out of the blue in the last few days, let’s take a look at previous comments made by his former colleague.
What has Steven Gerrard said about Michael Beale?
In his time with Rangers and Villa, Steven Gerrard had Beale as his assistant manager and was heavily impacted upon his departure.
When his assistant left for QPR at the beginning of last season, the Villans’ form fell off which subsequently saw Gerrard sacked. This pointed towards the assistant almost being the brains behind the operation.
Following Beale’s move to the Championship with the R’s, he did extremely well which saw plenty of interest. Wolverhampton Wanderers were linked with a move for the coach, this saw Gerrard comment on the rumours.
Speaking with the Shropshire Star, the Villa manager at the time was full of praise for his old colleague. On that, he said: “It would take me 15 to 20 years to become as good as Michael Beale as an on-pitch coach, delivering sessions on a daily basis, so I let Mick be Mick because he’s the expert.
“What I’ll never do is try to do someone else’s job when they are better than me at doing it. A lot of people won’t have a clue what Michael Beale does on the training pitch, but what he does is really quite special.”
With that, it is clear for Sunderland to see that the potential new boss is an expert when it comes to coaching his team.
Gerrard’s praise continued as he compared his former assistant to some big names. Discussing that, he added: “In terms of having that pitch time to really become a coach for the past 20 years like a Brendan Rodgers, a Mourinho or a Michael Beale.”
It is safe to say that Gerrard rates Beale and if his word is taken as gospel, Sunderland have a great coach on their hands.