Queens Park Rangers have landed their man ahead of what is set to be a busy pre-season before the 2022-23 Championship season kicks off, securing the signature of Michael Beale as the club's new head coach.
The 41-year-old has signed a three-year contract with the Hoops as he succeeds Mark Warburton in the dugout at Loftus Road following his three-year stint as the club's manager.
It is Beale's first foray into the world of senior management, having been a youth coach and an assistant for the duration of his career so far.
Having started out with the Chelsea academy, Beale moved to Liverpool in 2012 and managed their development squad, and returned to the Reds in 2017 in an academy coaching capacity following a brief stint as Sao Paulo's assistant manager.
More recently, Beale has been the right-hand man to Steven Gerrard, firstly at Rangers before jumping ship with the England icon in November 2021 to Aston Villa.
Despite only being at Villa Park for a number of months, Beale has penned a heartfelt farewell message to the players, staff and fans of the Midlands club on Twitter.
The Verdict
It's a brave move for Beale to move away from an assistant coaching capacity to carve his own lone path in the game.
But that is what Beale is now doing with QPR, having amassed almost 20 years of coaching experience in the youth game and also in senior football for the previous four years.
He was clearly highly thought of at Villa, considering reports indicated that they did not want to lose Beale from their coaching staff.
However, the chance to lead his own team was clearly too big of an opportunity to pass up, and now the 41-year-old will be the man to try and take the R's back to the Premier League.