Michael Beale's Rangers allies have let him down and he now needs Euro relief to ease cycle of stress - Hugh Keevins

From days of reckoning to nights of nervous anxiety.

That has been Michael Beale’s cycle of stress since Rangers lost to Celtic a month ago in the derby. At the same time, the Ibrox boss has faced venom and vitriol on a vicious scale from his own club’s supporters. And he’s now a boss on the brink after Aberdeen’s 3-1 victory at Ibrox. Beale hasn’t been helped by those around about him. Neil Banfield, Beale’s coaching assistant, assumed media duties last Tuesday and spoke about the manager’s emotional state after matches.

Unhelpful. It allows those listening to conjure up a mental image of a man with a fragile temperament and conclude he’s out of his depth. Banfield also claimed Beale wasn’t under greater pressure to win the Viaplay Cup after Celtic’s elimination. That represents a failure to appreciate the environment in which you work.

Failure to get past Hearts in the semis, or Aberdeen or Hibs in the final itself, will be regarded as the equivalent of industrial misconduct. And Beale might not even be around for the next cup outing after his latest defeat. At the same press gathering, Kemar Roofe publicly declared the reason why the team were periodically being booed off the park was down to them being boring to watch.

With friends like those, who needs enemies? Beale was accused on social media of having hidden from the press on Tuesday after his team’s woeful display against Motherwell at the weekend –but that was inaccurate and unfair.

The manager had delivered a damning post-match indictment of the performance. He admitted they had “got away with one” and that the one-goal victory “doesn’t feel like a win”.

It was a powerful observation with no need for repetition 48 hours later. That’s why it was able to be