Simon Jordan predicts when Giovanni van Bronckhorst will be sacked by Rangers
Simon Jordan believes Giovanni van Bronckhorst will keep his job as Rangers manager until they face Celtic in January, where a defeat will see him sacked.
The boss is under big pressure at Ibrox after being eliminated from the Champions League group stages with the worst record in the competition’s history after six defeats from six games with 22 goals conceded and only two scored.
But speaking live on talkSPORT [2 November, 10:43] and reacting to the result, Jordan suggested that the Rangers board will keep hold of Van Bronckhorst until at least January 2nd when they face Celtic in the SPFL.
“Every manager has a say,” he said. “How prevalent that say is, he’ll be in the loop and in the mix, and it’s very, very, very, very, very rare despite the narrative people pedal out there, that you’ll get a group of players wheeled into your office that you’ve never heard of, never seen any sight of, never had any visibility of and they’re dumped in your lap.
“That’s nonsense.
“Where Giovanni van Bronckhorst will become a cropper is I think they’ll keep him in situ until the 2nd of January. If they get their heads handed to them by Celtic in January, they’ll take him out then.
“Because I think there is an underpinning narrative being built up that he’s not good enough, not strong enough. Last year it started around January when Celtic smashed them in the first half and strolled through the second half.
“He’ll have had 15 or 16 months. The tragedy is that he got them together, he got great pride in that group of players because of what they did in the Europa League.
“I think this campaign is diminishing in one respect because the players and the manager have accepted their fate and it’s translated on the pitch.
“Obviously they beat Aberdeen at the weekend and before that they were poor previously against Livingston, but they beat Aberdeen and Aberdeen are no mugs. They beat them and they beat them convincingly.
“The Rangers board will look at what he did last year, look at the underlying narrative created by the media and by the dissatisfaction of the fans, and it will come to a head if they get smashed by Celtic on the 2nd of January.”
Bold
That would be a huge call for the Rangers board to make, considering the fact that there is about to be a huge month-long break in the season that could be perfect for changes.
Van Bronckhorst is unlikely to be able to reach the heights he reached last season again at Ibrox, and with only the title race to fight for now among the biggest honours, a new approach could be exactly what’s needed.
But by waiting until January and then acting if we were to lose to Celtic again would mean the entire break is wasted and a new manager will have to come in during a tough period and with the gap at the top even bigger than what it was.
If they’re going to back him now, then they need to stick by him, but Jordan has a tendency to know how things go in the boardroom having been an owner before, so it could be a long holiday season at Rangers.
In other Rangers news, Kris Boyd is delighted the ‘disaster’ of a UCL campaign is over