Rangers and the media appear to have ‘cancelled’ Giovanni van Bronckhorst

Whatever you think of his final few months, there’s a real unfairness now about how former Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst has been airbrushed out of the club’s history, with the in-house content and media all perpetrating a bit of a line that he never even existed, and it was new manager Michael Beale who took over from Steven Gerrard.

Even Beale himself is happy to perpetuate this ‘cancelling’ of the former boss, with the following rather bizarrely worded comment about John Souttar:

“I thought he would come to Rangers and kick on to the senior national team, but injury has held him back. That is one for the future. If John can play consistently, he will be a good player for Rangers and then onwards and upwards for the national team.”

Spoken like a man who seems to think he was Rangers manager when Souttar was signed, the media are not unlike this either, with the former manager rarely-to-never mentioned. Why?

Do you remember back in the days of Steven Gerrard, and the Liverpool icon had become something of a darling with the Scottish media, with Ibrox Noise reporting how his ‘direct talking’ and charm with the press made him very popular, along with his name and reputation? Do you also remember Gio was the exact opposite? Cryptic, lacking in charisma, and not terribly good at speaking in English in general?

Well, the media, and Beale, seem to have taken this personally and he no longer exists, with Beale seeming to replace him, with his own verbose approach infinitely preferred.

It’s a bit harsh on the former manager, with Sevilla and the Cup mentioned occasionally but rarely including him in the content – most references to last season and the bulk of this one are Michael Beale’s opinions on it, and he’s quite happy to promote himself.

He’s barely mentioned his predecessor either, one admittedly decent comment about his departure and reign during his early days at Ibrox, and his sacking, but there’s no denying his presence at Ibrox that infamous day v Aberdeen set the tone for how Gio has come to be totally disrespected otherwise.

No, Gio is being erased by the club and by the media, and given what he achieved it’s very unfair. We back Beale, but it doesn’t mean we endorse everything around him.

And QPR certainly don’t…