The Billy Gilmour lesson for Rangers and Gio

Billy Gilmour has started two matches in a row since the firing at Norwich of Daniel Farke, and his performances have been excellent, and while this isn’t strictly a Rangers topic, there are echoes of what Gio’s predecessor did with our youth and certain players in that.

Farke was deeply stubborn and refused to play Gilmour on personal grounds – he refused to ‘develop’ other clubs’ players, in a nonsense case against playing one of the most promising young players in Britain. As a friend of Thomas Tuchel, that relationship has probably dipped a little.

But what does this have to do with us?

Our ex manager was exactly the same as Farke – stubborn to a fault, out of pride and arrogance, and refused to drop certain players or play certain other ones on a purely personal level and not a club interests one.

Gio is different. He will play the best team, and as we saw with the subs, he’s happy to make big changes to influence matches.

It cost Farke his job, and now Billy is thriving at Carrow Road. Thankfully, our ex slipped away and it’s allowing our whole squad to thrive.

We don’t want to be talking about the Aston Villa boss much these days, and regulars will note we’ve hardly referred to him lately unless we’ve had to, but it’s a lesson for Gio and future Rangers managers.

Having favourites and stubborn arrogance will never help you be a great manager of this club.