Antwerp boss makes big appeal to board ahead of crunch EL clash with Rangers
Royal Antwerp manager Franky Vercauteren has pleaded with club officials to make new signings ahead of their Europa League meeting with Rangers.
Belgian side Antwerp host the Gers on February 18 before travelling to Ibrox a week later for the second leg of their Europa League round of 32 clash.
They impressed in the group stages and produced a shock 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur before narrowly missing out on top spot.
It has not been all plain sailing for the Jupiler League side this season as previous manager Ivan Leko left to join Chinese outfit Shanghai SIPG in December.
Furthermore, in quotes reported by the Daily Record, Vercauteren has called on the Antwerp hierarchy to bring in new arrivals so that they can compete, saying: “I’ve been on to the board to try and work out ways we can get some reinforcements in as soon as possible.
“We need to bring in players who will improve the squad.
“We have a really tough schedule coming up with the Europa League games against Rangers as well as a busy league campaign going on too.”
No problems over at Ibrox
It looks like Antwerp have endured a rather disruptive last few months after an impressive start to the campaign.
They lost four successive games in December which has contributed to a run of six defeats in their last 10 games with a managerial change in the middle of it.
While Vercauteren has enjoyed a decent start to life as Antwerp manager all does not seem rosy with the 64-year-old making a public appeal for new additions to his squad.
He name-checked the upcoming clash with Rangers and must be particularly worried given the scintillating form shown by the Light Blues this season which has been kept up after the conclusion of the Europa League group stage.
Since Steven Gerrard’s side beat Lech Poznan in their final group game they have lost only once in 10 games and that was a narrow 3-2 defeat to St Mirren in the League Cup.
Eight of those have been wins including the brushing aside of Old Firm rivals Celtic on Janaury 2.
The Gers will surely be confident of knocking out Antwerp to as they aim to march their way to the latter stages of the Europa League and avenge last season’s disappointing last 16 exit to Bayer Leverkusen.
In other Rangers news, our view on Joe Aribo’s Ross County display.