Perception versus achievement at Ibrox
One of the biggest frustrations that Ibrox Noise has is with perception by Rangers fans. It is a complicated story. So we ask you to open your minds and try to grasp what we are going to get at here. We know the concept is not simple. We are going to give this a shot and explain what we have an issue with. The issue is not with Danny Rohl per se. The issue is with the innaccurate perception by Rangers fans of what he has achieved. Cast your minds back to life under Russell Martin. It was truly awful. Rangers broke all sorts of historically unwanted records. We briefly ended up 11th at one point.
The Russell Martin baseline
Any manager coming in would naturally get Rangers higher than that. What do we mean by this, and why are we not giving Rohl vast credit?
We will explain that in due course.
The fact is Russell Martin took the Rangers job for the payoff. He had no intention of sticking around at Ibrox. He wanted the high salary and the payoff. He suffered a bit to get it. That, in concert with his Southampton payoff, made him very rich. He does not need to work anymore. Russell Martin accumulated between £7M and £10M from Rangers and Southampton combined via two sackings. He discredited himself as a manager but made himself a wealthy man who does not need to work again. That, we are fairly convinced, was his plan. Nevertheless, his Rangers performance was absolutely unprecedented. Rangers were domestically painful on a completely unprecedented level.
From Gerrard to decline
Let us cast our minds back further to life under Gerrard. After we won 55, the team declined. It still led the table in autumn 21 but failed to reinforce properly that summer. There was a lack of investment. Gerrard left immediately for Villa and called out the board for the lack of funds. Giovanni van Bronckhorst came in and then extended Rangers’ lead from four points to six (look it up). Rangers had a burst of form, but once the Euro run took over, that was that. Domestically, we could no longer compete. Celtic went past us. Rangers weakened badly after that the following summer and Gio lost his job for various reasons. We were second in the league.
The familiar bounce cycle
Michael Beale then took over and got the same new manager bounce Gio did. Under Beale, Rangers were top of the table. Under Beale, Rangers recorded the highest win percentage in the history of any Rangers manager. Regardless of results against Celtic or in Europe, that first season win rate was unprecedented. Then it caved. Rangers dropped back to second the following season and everything went to hell in a handbasket. Philippe Clement came in and Rangers were second, then first. We got the ‘new manager bounce’ yet again. Win, win, win. Then it derailed. Celtic went past us and that was pretty much that. He then got fired.
Why Rohl is being judged differently
There is a recurring pattern here, do you notice it? Then Rangers ended up with Barry Ferguson as interim. Rangers were second under Barry. It was not a great era – in fact aside his wins in Europe and at Parkhead, he had the second-worst win rate of any Rangers manager ever. Russell Martin then came in and somehow made everything worse. It was horrific.
Readers may be wondering where this is now going.
Let us elaborate: had Philippe Clement taken over directly from Russell Martin, Rangers would be in the same position we are now. Second. The new manager bounce would have happened again. All those wins would have given us massive accumulated points, just like they always do when a new manager arrives.
Proof only comes with trophies
Russell Martin is the big aberation here. Whoever replaced him, with Rangers’ resources, would have risen from 11th. Martin was a complete unprecented fail, and we can barely fathom any boss who couldn’t have done better.
This is why we are reluctant to give Rohl direct and pure credit. Rohl has done nothing other new Rangers managers have not done. Apart from Martin, every Rangers manager gets a bounce. Martin is the only one who did not. This meant that his successor was always going to look like a saviour. We will not truly credit Rohl unless he actually wins something. We will not credit him for repeating what Gio, Clement, and Beale initially did. This is not to discredit, but we’ve seen this same movie before. This is why Rohl is nothing special. Yet. Rangers always get a new manager bounce. That has generally been the case since the 90s.
Separation
What would separate Danny Rohl from the rest is winning titles and doing it prolifically. No manager since Walter Smith in 2010 has won two trophies in one season. We have won trophies since then but only individually. If Rohl wins two, a cup and the league, then we will know he is on the right track. Our dubiety is not about Danny Rohl. It is about false dawns and repeating the same patterns. This situation is a bit different because of where we have come from, but Beale, Clement, or Gio would have had the same impact on an 11th place Rangers side. All we can hope is that Rohl is genuine Rangers manager material, keeps winning domestically, and takes us to 56. At the end of the day, the proof is in the trophy pudding, and we reserve our judgement until then.