Rangers firing Giovanni van Bronckhorst was a mistake. There, we said it. Well, you see, it’s not so much his firing was the error, it was the fact that the board did not back him nor sign any of the players he wanted.
He also suffered an appalling injury blight, and while we admit some of his man-management wasn’t the best (Niko Katic was a big victim of his lack of charm at times) this was the man who took Joe Aribo, a player who can’t now get a game for Championship Southampton, to Sevilla and a Scottish Cup triumph.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst was the best manager we’d had since Walter, it really was that simple.
Despite his age (46 when he joined Rangers) he’d won 5, yes, FIVE trophies in just a few years at Feyenoord. He’d failed horribly in Europe with them, but domestically he’d been exceptional. And that was obvious at Rangers in big swathes.
See, league-wise he was up against Angie, who had no Europe to deal with – the Greek is a decent manager, no denying that, but he didn’t have midweek football to contend with at Ibrox. And he crashed in it when he did.
Gio did. And despite that, when he took over we were 4 points ahead (late November 21). That became 6 (18th December 2021) until a draw at Aberdeen in January saw it come back down again. And then the run to Sevilla just became too much alongside a few injuries.
So don’t let the ‘he let a 6 point lead slip’ nonsense fool you, he MADE that lead over a month, until midweek football just took its toll.
And guess what? Sevilla 2003. Manchester 2008. Sevilla 2022.
What do they all have in common? The side getting to those UEFA finals did NOT win the league.
Scottish teams don’t have the resources to contend both. We just don’t.
But some still use all this as a stick to beat Gio with.
He wasn’t perfect, by any means, but he wasn’t supported either.
Imagine a winning manager like he actually being backed by his board properly.
Gio never enjoyed that privilege and look at what he did without such support.
Look at the mess Beale has made WITH that support…