Rangers: Fabrizio Romano claims Gers looked at Francesco Farioli amid Beale appointment

Rangers showed an interest in Italian manager Francesco Farioli before they appointed Michael Beale as their new head coach. 

This is according to the reliable Fabrizio Romano, who has been speaking about the Ibrox side on his latest Here We Go podcast.

The Gers are now set to return to league action with a new man in the dugout with Beale replacing Giovanni van Bronckhorst following an underwhelming start to the 2022/23 campaign.

However, it seems as if Rangers delved into the European leagues in their hunt to replace the 47-year-old, as they looked at the current Alanyaspor manager.

Rangers were clearly looking to bring in a young manager with a lot of potential, and it seems they joined a number of clubs in enquiring about Farioli.

Romano said: “I wanted to reveal something on Francesco Farioli, who is an Italian manager – really young manager, but really talented. Many clubs approached him in the last few months and years in Italy, in Spain, and now also in Scotland.

“Rangers, before appointing Michael Beale, they had conversations with Francesco Farioli. He was in the list at Rangers, he was the second option.”

TIF Thoughts on Romano’s comments…

Farioli only has around 18 months of experience as a manager and has claimed the likes of Pep Guardiola as a huge influence on his managerial philosophy.

However, having only managed two clubs and both of them being outside of the big European leagues, we do think the potential appointment of Farioli would have been a massive risk, especially at a time when the Gers have fallen behind in the title race and the idea of changing managers over the World Cup break was in the hope of a quick fix.

So had Rangers appointed the 33-year-old, there would have likely been huge pressure on him and the board if the appointment did not go to plan.