Beale has ‘lost good ally’ at Rangers with Wilson exit

Rangers boss Michael Beale feels he “lost a good ally” in Ross Wilson after the sporting director moved to Nottingham Forest.

The 39-year-old was last night announced as the Premier League club’s chief football officer.

The switch brought an end to his four-year spell with the Light Blues during which the club won the Scottish Premiership title, reached the Europa League final, won the Scottish Cup and returned to the Champions League group stage.

However, Wilson came in from scathing criticism from a section of the Gers support this season as the Light Blues fell behind to Celtic in the cinch Premiership title race – they sit 12 points adrift with seven fixtures remaining – while also losing the Viaplay Cup final to their Old Firm rivals.

Beale, who took over the Ibrox hot seat last November after previously working as an assistant coach to former Ibrox boss Steven Gerrard, told RangersTV: “Firstly, you’re disappointed to lose a good person, someone I’ve worked with over the last three-and-a-half years in two spells at the club.

“Ross was hugely positive in his day-to-day work here at the club and he brought a lot of the departments together.

“His job was to oversee first-team football operations, recruitment, medical, the academy, the women’s teams and bring all of that in line. We’ve seen good success in the time that he was here.

“He was influential in me coming back in and he’s a person that I probably spoke to the most out of anybody at Rangers and was between me and the board. So I feel like I’ve lost a good ally.

“One thing I would say that is a big strength of Ross is that he never micromanaged anybody. He allowed people to grow in their role and do it to the fullest.

“In the short-term there will be a void in terms of Ross leaving but the heads of departments are ready to step into the role.

“We’ve got an extensive recruitment team and analysis start that collect the data.

“Meetings have already been had and recruitment and pre-season has very much been finalised. Now, it’s just ticking one or two boxes on some areas.

“Maybe some players see their futures elsewhere. The main part of the recruitment process in terms of identifying players has already happened. Now it’s about executing those deals.

“I’ve been aware for the last couple of weeks. I’m disappointed for Rangers that Ross has moved on.

“But on a personal level I’m happy for him and his family that he feels this is a challenge he’d like to take.

“Having known Ross for as long as I have, I know this isn’t the first opportunity to have come his way. So, if he feels this is the right thing for him then we wish him well, we feel that he did a good job here but now it’s time to move forward strongly.”

Ahead of the home game against St Mirren on Saturday, Beale revealed that centre-back Connor Goldson, who missed last weekend’s 3-2 defeat at Celtic with a hip flexor problem, remains out.

He said: “From last weekend, Connor won’t return. He’ll be more likely to back for Aberdeen, or certainly the Scottish Cup semi-final (against Celtic) at the end of the month.

“We’ve got one or two bumps and bruises and players didn’t train this morning.

“There was a game on Tuesday against Chelsea reserves in which Scott Wright, Ianis Hagi, Leon King and Rabbi Matondo were able to play and get some valuable minutes.

“So we’ll assess again, then pick the squad for the weekend.”