‘Huge compliment’: Title-chasing manager turned down pay rise at Wolves

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Queens Park Rangers manager Mick Beale turned down the offer of a pay rise at Wolves but admits interest from a Premier League outfit felt like a ‘huge compliment’, speaking to the Evening Standard. 

Technically speaking, there are only four places separating Wolverhampton Wanderers and QPR in the footballing pyramid. Wolves are second from bottom in the top-flight; that 2-1 turnaround at Crystal Palace proceeding a mutinous 4-0 home drubbing by Leicester City on Sunday. 

QPR, meanwhile, are just two points off the top of the Championship; winning five of their last six league games. 

And, much to the delight of the West London outfit, the up-and-coming Beale opted to stay put after holding talks with the men from Molineux, telling talkSPORT that the Wolves job simply came around at the wrong time. 

Wolves manager search goes on as Mick Beale stays at QPR

“You have to say the words, say ‘I’m not going’ and then it’s like you’ve snubbed them. It’s not. I took it as a huge compliment but I wanted to politely decline,” Beale explains ahead of QPR’s Friday night trip to Birmingham City.

“It’s the Premier League. And, financially, it would have been more.”

Beale is only four months into his QPR contract. The 42-year-old is also in his first ever senior managerial role, having built up his reputation as a highly-promising tactician alongside Steven Gerrard at Aston Villa and Rangers. 

“I’d said a lot of things to (the QPR players) about commitment to the cause. Commitment to what we’re building, the journey they’re on,” Beale adds. “You have to be loyal to the words you’ve used.

“I always say to young players; ‘Get to 100 games and football will put you where you’re supposed to be’. If that’s the rule for young players, it’s got to be the rule for young managers as well.”

Wolves have now confirmed that caretaker Steve Davis will remain in charge until the turn of the year. Talks with Julen Lopetegui, Peter Bosz and former head coach Nuno Espirito Santo broke down, while ex-Olympiakos boss Pedro Martins is reportedly on his way to Qatar.