With the hype machine over Danny Rohl in current overdrive, Ibrox Noise decided to take a look at the numbers.
Rangers’ manager has overseen a climb from 6th to 2nd in the table, vaunting him in fans’ eyes as a hero.
And it’s understandable to consider the improvement in position as a boon.
However, what’s really going on here?
Is Rohl the Second Coming after all, is something more rational at play here?
Well, the big clue of course is the points tally. Rohl has taken Rangers from 6th place to second with, as we go into the Split, a 69 points total.
In charge since October, that’s 7 months and Rangers have had plenty time to give his management a fair assessment.
However, the devil is in the details.
This time last season Rangers were 66 points going into the split – Rohl has seen a 3 point improvement. The problem was Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic was miles ahead on 81 points. Had Rohl been in charge from the start last season, Rangers would be 12 points behind based on current 69 points total.
The season before? Rangers, under Clement, were actually at 75 points by the time the Split appeared.
If anything, Rangers now are barely better than Barry had us in 2025 at this point, and are a bit worse than they were under Clement.
The differences?
Celtic have also deteriorated this season. They crashed from 82 points to 64 and are so far off their previous selves that they’ve come down to Rangers’ level.
Rohl has simply restored Clement/Barry/Beale levels, from the absolute pittance of shambles it was under Russell Martin.
Rangers are essentially back where they were before they appointed Russell Martin. The bizarre bonus is seeing Celtic crumble, which a purple patch under Derek McInnes has seen Hearts shine over.
AKA Hearts have gigantically improved, Celtic have gigantically deteriorated, and Rangers have restored themselves to pre-Martin levels.
Which has led to a three-way and rather low-quality tussle for the title. Motherwell have also had an outstanding season and have hugely upped their level.
Many see Rohl as a saviour, but the details illustrate a slightly different picture. He’s not a failure, but he’s by no means doing anything that Clement, Barry and Beale didn’t do. And that wasn’t good enough before.
But Celtic were so far ahead of that back then that these guys lost their jobs.
Rohl isn’t facing that this season, and it puts him in a much better light.
The fact is this Rangers could well win the league, although we feel Hearts have the edge.
But only time will tell if Rohl can elevate Rangers to the proper level we’re used to, because Celtic will be much stronger next season.