Jean-Paul van Gastel set to be new Rangers assistant manager for Giovanni van Bronckhorst
Jean-Paul van Gastel is set to become the new assistant manager at Rangers as Giovanni van Bronckhorst gets closer to being hired, according to Glasgow Evening Times journalist Chris Jack.
Writing in the newspaper’s print edition on November 18 [page 38], Jack says that despite talk from China [Scottish Sun] saying that the Guangzhou City manager won’t be moving, he is set to reunite with van Bronckhorst in Glasgow.
Van Gastel worked with van Bronckhorst at Feyenoord when they won the Eredivisie title and followed the Dutchman to Guangzhou, taking charge after he left due to the COVID pandemic.
Glasgow Evening Times journalist now reports that with van Bronckhorst set to be named as Steven Gerrard’s successor at Ibrox, van Gastel will in fact be following him.
“Jean-Paul van Gastel, his long-time confidant and colleague, is poised to become part of van Bronckhorst’s backroom team and will assume the role of assistant manager,” said Jack.
Who is van Gastel?
It’s unlikely that many Rangers fans will have heard of van Gastel.
The 49-year-old played as a midfielder for Willem II, Feyenoord and the Netherlands national team in his playing days.
He won the 1998/99 Eredivisie title in his time at Feyenoord and then returned to the Rotterdam club as a youth coach in 2005.
Van Gastel then rose up the ranks behind the scenes at De Kuip and was an assistant coach in the Feyenoord first-team from 2011 to 2018, playing a role in their Eredivisie win when van Bronckhorst was at the helm.
He followed van Bronckhorst to Guangzhou in 2019 but as that move to China didn’t work out for the ex-Rangers man, it was van Gastel who replaced him in charge.
We totally trust van Bronckhorst to assemble the best backroom staff for him and poaching a manager from another club may be a bit costly for Rangers in terms of compensation.
However, ensuring that Gio has the best team of coaches behind him as possible is a huge priority and hopefully they work together well here at Ibrox and win more titles as they did in the Netherlands.
In other Rangers news, last-ditch administration issues have been mooted for the swoop to hire Gio.