Ex-Rangers boss admits to 'heartbreak' over departure and makes recruitment 'instability' claim

Former Rangers head coach Michael Beale has revealed his departure from Ibrox last year left him 'heartbroken'.

The 43-year-old, who is now in charge of EFL Championship outfit Sunderland, was speaking to Sky Sports about his 10 months in charge at the Glasgow giants and revealed which key factors he felt led to his sacking in October following a 3-1 home defeat to Aberdeen.

"There's a lot of emotion that goes into managing big football clubs and you put your heart and soul into it. That club is a club that I worked at for a number of years and invested a lot in the people, the city and everything," explained Beale, who also spent several years as an assistant to Steven Gerrard at the Gers.

"If you're not hurt and you're not heartbroken at times and you're not wounded by your bad days, are you putting everything into the job? What it does do is it gives me huge experience moving forward as a young manager, both that time at Queen's Park Rangers and Rangers" explained the Black Cat head honcho.

Beale is facing pressure once again at current club Sunderland with the hashtag #BealeOut trending on X - formerly known as Twitter - in recent days just one month into his tenure at the Stadium of Light. Despite that pressure, Beale claims his time at Ibrox has made him stronger.

"I love both clubs (Queens Park Rangers and Rangers) and the time I had at both, and I'm thankful for both experiences and certainly they'll make me a stronger manager moving forward" though he cited "a lot of turnover" in recruitment as one of reasons his time at Ibrox became increasingly difficult.

"When you come to recruitment, there was a lot of turnover in my last club. I still think they have a fantastic chance to fulfil whatever they want to fulfil, but there was a lot of change there and maybe that can destabilise.

"Sometimes the demands are really high and you need to hit the ground running and I'm as pleased as anyone to see the team go on and win the Scottish League Cup because we were in a good position. But there's one thing being in a good position, another thing is going on to win it.

"To get out the Europa League group because again, we were in a decent enough position after beating Real Betis, but you still have to go away there and get the result in the end" added the former Gers boss.