Giovanni van Bronckhorst criticism of players after Dundee may signal Rangers exit is near
Giovanni van Bronckhorst turned on his own players after Rangers laboured to a 1-0 win over Dundee in the the Scottish League Cup on Wednesday.
The Light Blues were booed by their own fans at Ibrox after a game where they were only able to register an early Steven Davis strike against lower league opposition.
And the Dutchman agreed that they were right to do so in his comments after the game, saying via BBC Sport: “They are right, I can understand, I wasn’t happy either.
“When you play well you should get the applause but when you don’t play well at a club like Rangers they should boo you.
“We need to know and feel that the performance in the last half-an-hour is not good enough and we need to improve.”
The club are not especially popular with the fanbase currently amid some terrible results in big games, and some unconvincing ones in games they should win.
Across September and October there have been a pair of 4-0 wins over Hearts (1 October) and St Mirren (8 October) which were solid results, but little else.
Otherwise there hasn’t been anything to shout about, as there have been thrashings at the hands of rivals Celtic (3 September), Ajax (7 September), Napoli (14 September), and the absolute humiliation of a 7-1 Ibrox demolition by Liverpool on 12 October.
Questions have understandably been asked about the quality of the recruitment in the summer given that Antonio Colak is the only clear success of the transfer haul.
And investment levels have not matched expectations since the 55th title win a year and a half ago, despite lucrative European football across the run to the Europa League final and qualification for the Champions League.
Big money sales in the form of Nathan Patterson to Everton, Calvin Bassey to Ajax and Joe Aribo to Southampton have also brought a lot of money in, but the expenditure on players hasn’t got anywhere near to matching the profit.
Yet throughout the difficulties the manager has stayed behind his team and offered excuses in terms of an inability to compete financially at the top table in Europe.
But having made a number of changes from his largely underperforming first team he was rewarded with a similarly uninspired performance from some of his reserve men on Wednesday (19 October).
That he responded by rounding on his own players suggests that he is tired of taking the flack for his side, as the criticism from fans increases.
Whether he agrees that his squad isn’t up to it and the club haven’t given him enough, or that it is strong enough but they aren’t giving him enough on the pitch, it was a statement.
He could have been excused for hoping that given the opportunity some of the players who came in last night might have done a bit more.
And while the question of whether the club should get rid of him continues to swirl around Ibrox, it feels like it may start to be overtaken by the question of whether Gio will actually be bothered either way.
If what he saw makes him feel like he is fighting a losing battle this season then a divorce may come sooner rather than later.
In other Rangers news, Graeme Souness slammed the players for having an “inferiority complex”.