Who is Neil Banfield? New Rangers coach with Bayern Munich endorsement set to bring Arsene Wenger magic to Ibrox

dailyrecord.co.uk:

It's fair to say Neil Banfield knows plenty about Rangers, even if fans of the Ibrox club know little about him.Then again, 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 same journey as Beale's right hand man, the new Rangers manager having 'inherited' the 60-year-old at Loftus Road, where he had been brought to QPR by ex-Ibrox boss Mark Warburton.Banfield had been out of work for a year after becoming collateral damage at the end of Arsene Wenger's reign at Arsenal, where had worked closely with the legendary Frenchman on the training ground as part of a 21 year association with The Gunners.

Beale might have taken all of Rangers' tactical and technical training ground work under Gerrard but the myriad of managerial duties he will now undertake as the main man, means he will have to rely on the backroom staff 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 done it all with some who have gone on to be the best in the business.

One small example is a signed Bayern Munich Champions League shirt that takes pride of place in the London home he will soon vacate.It arrived on his doorstep just before Christmas 2020 from Serge Gnabry, whom Banfield had taken under his wing when he arrived at Arsenal as a 16-year-old in 2011.