It is truthful to say Neil Banfield is aware of a lot about Rangers, even when followers of the Ibrox membership know little about him.
Then once more, few of them had heard of Michael Beale when he hitched himself to Steven Gerrard's wagon and headed up the M6 in 2018. Now Banfield has made the identical journey as Beale's proper hand man, the brand new Rangers supervisor having 'inherited' the 60-year-old at Loftus Highway, the place he had been dropped at QPR by ex-Ibrox boss Mark Warburton.
Banfield had been out of labor for a yr after changing into collateral injury on the finish of Arsene Wenger's reign at Arsenal, the place had labored carefully with the legendary Frenchman on the coaching floor as a part of a 21 yr affiliation with The Gunners. Beale might need taken all of Rangers' tactical and technical coaching floor work beneath Gerrard however the myriad of managerial duties he'll now undertake as the principle man, means he should depend on the backroom workers of Banfield, Damian Matthew and Harry Watling, all of whom have left QPR for Ibrox.
And in Banfield he has a coach who has seen and accomplished all of it with some who've gone on to be the perfect within the enterprise. One small instance is a signed Bayern Munich Champions League shirt that takes pleasure of place within the London residence he'll quickly vacate.
It arrived on his doorstep simply earlier than Christmas 2020 from Serge Gnabry, whom Banfield had taken beneath his wing when he arrived at Arsenal as a 16-year-old in 2011. Banfield stated in a latest interview: “It took my breath away to have somebody like that recognise what you probably did for them. It’s acquired pleasure of place in my home.”
He'd began his teaching profession within the Gunners' academy beneath ex-Celtic boss Liam Brady, throughout which period the likes of Ashley Cole, Jack Wilshere, Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie got here beneath his wing earlier than graduating to grow to be one in all Wenger's most trusted first workforce lieutenants.
And one other ex-Ibrox connection, now managing Arsenal, is one Banfield at all times felt would go proper to the highest after switching from the dressing room to the dugout. "Mikel Arteta was at all times within the tactical facet and we’d converse from time to time about the place he needed to go as a coach,” he stated. “He had a imaginative and prescient and he is aware of what he desires. It takes time to place your personal imprint on another person’s workforce and he’s doing that now. Mikel was the captain, he at all times set the principles (as a participant) and powerful managers must have that, no doubt. We've non-negotiables right here (at QPR) too.”
Undoubtedly, these can be utilized at Ibrox. And with a popularity as being a person who tells it like it's, irrespective of the profile of the participant he's coping with, the Rangers squad will not get away with taking their toes off the fuel.
"What is hard? How are you going to describe powerful?” he requested within the interview. “Powerful is demanding out of your gamers as a lot as they'll deal with. Some would possibly by no means make it to the first-team at Arsenal or QPR, however they nonetheless might someplace else, so that you stretch them for as a lot as they'll take.
“It’s individuals like Fabrice Muamba, Sebastian Larsson, Steve Sidwell, Ben Chorley, Luke Ayling. Those who you’ve helped give a implausible and life-changing profession. I might make it arduous on them however there was at all times a motive behind it.
"It was by no means nearly making them good footballers, it was about giving them good morals and watching them develop as human beings. Each step of my profession, I’ve labored with actually nice individuals. Typically individuals ask me if I might have needed to be a supervisor however I by no means had that inkling as a result of I at all times loved what I used to be doing a lot.
"This isn’t a job that begins at half-past seven and finishes at three for me. I can sit right here, hand on coronary heart, and say that I’ve tried to do the perfect for each participant I’ve ever labored with. That by no means goes away."
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