MICHAEL BEALE has dismissed suggestions that he was the 'brains of the operation' at Rangers as he outlined his respect for former boss Steven Gerrard.

Gerrard tempted highly-respected coach Beale to join his backroom team when he was appointed at Ibrox in May 2018 and the move was seen as something of a coup as the Liverpool legend took his first steps into management.

Beale was an integral part of the setup - alongside Gary McAllister, Tom Culshaw, Jordan Milsom and Colin Stewart - that guided Rangers to a historic 55th league flag in their third term together.

Beale is now going it alone for the first time after leaving his position at Aston Villa and the new QPR boss is thankful for all the support Gerrard has given him over the last four years.

"The reaction was fantastic," Beale said. "We have always communicated honestly the whole time we were together.

"His advice towards me was fantastic, it will stay between us obviously. Steven is like my football brother, it is hard for me to have more respect for someone than I have for him in terms of the way that our working relationship was.

"It has always been my plan to step out on my own. Neither of us knew when that was. But I think he has replaced me very well with Neil Critchley and I have come to a club that I am hugely excited to be at. So all is well so far.

“I think it was a bit disrespectful to the work that we all did [to say that I was the brains of the operation]. There are lots of ways to coach football players.

"The 11 o’clock training on the pitch is a guarantee, that happens every day, but there are different types of coach. There is the motivator, the leader type, the manager type, the tactician, the technical coach.

"We had a really well-balanced management team. Steven was extremely smart in the way he put his management team together, it’s probably a lesson for other ex-professionals going into the job that need to round themselves off. Steven was very, very smart in that."