Kris Commons questions Rangers over ‘defeatist’ Giovanni van Bronckhorst
Giovanni van Bronckhorst is now walking a Rangers tightrope and Kris Commons believes he perhaps should have been sacked a while ago.
The Light Blues suffered a hugely disappointing defeat away at St Johnstone on Sunday (6 November) to allow Celtic to pull out a seven-point lead in the Premiership title race.
Commons, a former Celtic player, laid into the Dutchman for what he perceived to be an overly negative demeanour from the man in the hot seat.
“Time’s up for Giovanni van Bronckhorst. He is finished at Rangers,” Commons said in his Daily Mail column. “Truth be told, he’s been finished for quite some time now.
“Van Bronckhorst claimed Rangers couldn’t compete in the Champions League. It wasn’t a one-off or a throwaway comment. His public utterances became increasingly negative and defeatist.
“There’s no fight or leadership in this team. Too many players are going through the motions. There’s no sense of identity or direction — and that stems from the very top of the club.”
Thin ice
With just two games left before the Premiership takes a break for the World Cup in Qatar (away at Hearts and St Mirren) perhaps the Rangers board are waiting until then to get rid of van Bronckhorst.
There is no getting away from the fact that they have been nowhere near good enough to warrant a title challenge and the Champions League embarrassment only piled the misery upon the Dutchman.
The decision is probably already made at Ibrox but it is now all about the timing of the trigger being pulled and whether they can quickly get a replacement in to start working with the players at Auchenhowie.
Having nearly a month with the whole squad should be hugely beneficial for a new manager, if they come in, so if the decision is to sack van Bronckhorst, it has to be taken at the very start of the break.
He could yet save his job with two incredible performances and huge wins before then but the writing appears to be on the wall already.
In other Rangers news, Ally McCoist was in awe of this Bears player after what he did against the Saints over and over again.