Mon Dec 18, 2023 3:07 pm
Sunderland AFC is delighted to announce the appointment of Michael Beale as the Club’s new manager.
Tue Dec 19, 2023 12:24 am
Michael Beale says "I got pulled in different places" before being sacked by Rangers and is looking forward to being just a head coach with Sunderland.
The 43-year-old Englishman has signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with the Championship club after the departure of Tony Mowbray.
Beale left Ibrox in October.
"I want to be the coach of the team, not the manager of the whole football club," he told Sunderland's website.
Rangers lost director of football Ross Wilson to Nottingham Forest in April, with Beale taking much greater control of summer signings.
"I went into QPR as a head coach and originally went into Rangers in the same role," Beale said. "There was a lot of changes with people leaving and I got pulled in different places.
"The thing that I'm really comfortable with here is the alignment through the club - my role being in line with that as a head coach and having an opinion and idea on other aspects of the club, but I want to be the coach of the team, not the manager of the whole football club."
Beale, who had previously been assistant to Steven Gerrard at Ibrox, left Queens Park Rangers to return to the Scottish Premiership club in November 2022.
He won 31 of his 43 games in charge but was sacked after three defeats in their first seven league matches of the campaign.
As he prepares to take over a side sitting seventh in England's second tier, Beale added: "Five of the last six years I've spent up in Rangers in Scotland, which is a big club, in between a bit of time with Aston Villa and QPR, so I feel like I've seen a lot of things in football.
"I'm a hands on coach, so I'm on the pitch every single day. I need to drive it. My background has been on-field coaching - that's where I'm at my best on the pitch with the players. I'm determined to lead from the front in that aspect."