Michael Beale has broken my heart

Most football fans have had their attention riveted on Qatar for the past couple of weeks, but for those of us who support Queens Park Rangers there’s been an unwelcome distraction at home. Our manager Michael Beale, who’s only been in charge for 21 league games, announced on Monday that he’s leaving us for Rangers, the Glaswegian football club. Having spent a huge amount of time and effort recruiting a manager in the summer – and seemingly picking a winner – QPR’s top brass will have to start again.

Beale was one of the few people in authority (me included) who hadn’t disappointed my children

Such behaviour isn’t particularly unusual in the modern game. Nathan Jones, who steered Luton to a top six finish in the Championship last season, left the Hatters in November to become the manager of Southampton. Another second-tier manager, Neil Critchley, was tempted away from Blackpool in June to become a mere assistant at Aston Villa, which must have been a kick in the teeth for the fans. At least our manager has been lured away by a proper job. True, Beale was only at QPR for five and a half months, when you’d expect a manager to stay for at least a season before making eyes at a more glamorous club. But that isn’t what makes his departure so annoying.

No, the really irritating thing about this is that in October another club came for Beale – Wolverhampton Wanderers – and he turned them down, explaining that he was too honourable to leave QPR so soon after being appointed. ‘Integrity and loyalty are big things for me, and if they are the values you live by you have to be strong,’ he told the press. ‘I have been all-in here and I have asked other people to be all-in so I can’t be the first person to run away from the ship.’