Former Rangers striker Greg Stewart has paid tribute to the backroom staff at Ibrox after his departure from his boyhood heroes – and insisted Gers first-team coach Micheal Beale is so good, Steven Gerrard claimed it would take him 20 years to catch up.
Beale has an extensive CV with spells at Chelsea, Sao Paulo and Liverpool and arrived at Rangers with a fantastic reputation as a coach.
Stewart has one eye on a coaching future as he enters his early thirties and told how he will be “taking notes” on the sessions with Beale to use later on.
“I’m coming away from Rangers physically stronger, fitter, more tactically aware and a better player because it’s at an elite level,” Stewart told the Sunday Mail.
“It’s an elite football club from the fitness coaches to the backroom staff and people like Mick, who’s a top coach.
“Even the gaffer has said it could take him 20 years to get to the coaching level of Mick. I learned a lot from him. The way Rangers play is top level stuff and I’ll be taking a lot of notes down from Mick’s sessions.
“I’ll be getting it in the notepad, for when my coaching days come around.”
Beale a massive part of Gerrard’s Rangers blueprint
Beale and Gerrard have previously spoken about the dynamic between the two, Beale the more hands-on coach with Gerrard taking a more over-arching view of sessions.
The addition of Beale to Gerrard’s coaching staff is arguably the most important move of the Rangers manager’s entire tenure at Ibrox.
Without Beale there, it would be a very, very different Rangers side that would be out on the pitch and his importance at Ibrox can’t be understated.
Having made his own managerial ambitions clear in the past, it’ll be interesting to see how Gerrard changes without the Londoner by his side.
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