MICHAEL Beale says he's on the wavelength as Sunderland's hierarchy, shares their vision for the club and is completely comfortable with what his role as the new head coach entails.

Beale says he wants to be "coach of the team, not manager of the whole football club" and says he's most at home when he's working on the training pitches with players.

It's no secret that disagreements over certain factors off the pitch - including recruitment - led to the exit of former boss Tony Mowbray, but Beale says he arrives at Sunderland with his eyes wide open and well aware of what will and won't be part of his remit as head coach.

Beale believes his role at QPR - his only previous management stint in the Championship - was similar to Sunderland in terms of his responsibilities, and felt that was also the case when he took the Rangers job, before claiming things changed.

In his first interview after signing a two-and-a-half year contract, Beale said: "I'm under no illusions about the size of this club and how passionate the fanbase are and how much their push behind this team makes the club what it is.

"The biggest thing for me is the vision from Kyri (Louis-Dreyfus) to Kristjaan (Speakman) to myself. I'm really aligned with that. This is a fantastic moment for me to join.

"The thing I'm really comfortable with here is the alignment through the club, having an opinion and idea on other aspects but I want to be the coach of the team, not manager of the whole football club. This was a good fit in terms of the alignment, the conversations were very smooth, there was a lot of common ground. I'm looking forward to the exiting future of the club.

"I went into QPR as a head coach and originally went into Rangers in the same role. There was a lot of changes with people leaving and I got pulled in different places."

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Beale was sacked by Rangers in October after a difficult start to the current season, but says he arrives at Sunderland shaped by a wide-variety of experiences in the game.

He said: "I've been involved with some really good clubs. Ten years at Chelsea gave me a really good foundation before moving on and having two periods at Liverpool.

"In between that a period in Brazil was fantastic for me. Then five of the last six years I spent at Rangers, which is a big club in between a bit of time at Aston Villa and QPR. I feel like I've seen a lot in football."