Michael Beale is pretty good Rangers manager but he's in the wrong city if he's looking for fairness - Keith Jackson

It's getting difficult not to feel some sympathy for Michael Beale, even if the Londoner wouldn’t wish to be patronised or viewed as some sort of hard luck story.

He’s landed his dream gig after all and - despite obvious, justifiable concerns over his lack of experience - all the early indications suggest he’s actually pretty good at being the manager of Rangers. The problem is, Beale’s long term job security might not be determined by the standard of his own work. On the contrary, and entirely unfairly, his career prospects are likely to be defined by the competence of others. Or, in some cases, the lack thereof.

It is a matter of monumental misfortune, for example, that he finds himself returning to Glasgow at a moment in time when a miracle worker has arrived on the other side of town all the way from the opposite end of the planet. And unless he can find a way of outmanoeuvring Ange Postecoglou in the Scottish Cup semi final at the end of this month, Beale will begin next season with his managerial jacket already on a shaky peg.

Unfair? You better believe it. If Beale’s body of work was allowed to stand alone then Rangers might consider themselves lucky to have such an astute, streetwise tactician mapping out the club’s way forward. The progress this team has made since his appointment is actually bordering on the remarkable, given how flaky and entirely unreliable it had become under Giovanni van Bronckhorst.

But, in this particular part of the world, fairness is a luxury which is seldom afforded. And Saturday’s derby day defeat at Celtic Park has left Beale boxed into an unenviable position. He was smart enough to see it coming when he spoke through the week about his big plans for the transfer market and he