Michael Beale admits he was “wounded” by his Rangers departure but believes his experience will make him a “stronger manager”.
Beale was sacked by the Ibrox club in October, just 10 months after replacing Giovanni van Bronckhorst after his dismissal one year into the job.
His final match was a 3-1 defeat to Aberdeen, a third loss in seven games, which left Rangers trailing Scottish Premiership leaders Celtic by seven points.
The 43-year-old, who is now in charge at Championship side Sunderland, told Sky Sports he took positives away from his short spell in charge.
“There’s a lot of emotion that goes into managing big football clubs and you put your heart and soul into it,” said the former Rangers assistant to Steven Gerrard.
“That club is a club that I worked at for a number of years and invested a lot in the people, the city and everything.
“If you’re not hurt and you’re not heartbroken at times and you’re not wounded by your bad days, are you putting everything into the job?
“What it does do is it gives me huge experience moving forward as a young manager, both that time at Queen’s Park Rangers and Rangers.
“I love both clubs and the time I had at both, and I’m thankful for both experiences and certainly they’ll make me a stronger manager moving forward.”
Beale made 11 signings during his time as Rangers manager and admitted spells of instability made things difficult.
“When you come to recruitment, there was a lot of turnover in my last club,” he said.
“I still think they have a fantastic chance to fulfil whatever they want to fulfil, but there was a lot of change there and maybe that can destabilise.
“Sometimes the demands are really high and you need to hit the ground running and I’m as pleased as anyone to see the team go on and win the Scottish League Cup because we were in a good position. But there’s one thing being in a good position, another thing is going on to win it.
“To get out the Europa League group because again, we were in a decent enough position after beating Real Betis, but you still have to go away there and get the result in the end.”
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