BBC host tips key Kevin Muscat feature to contrast with Giovanni van Bronckhorst as Rangers boss
Kevin Muscat would be able to “tear strips off people” as Rangers boss in a way Giovanni van Bronckhorst didn’t, according to Steven Thompson.
The Dutchman was sacked on Monday (21 November) after an increasingly miserable first half of the season, only six months after lifting the Scottish Cup and taking the Light Blues to the Europa League final.
The former Ibrox left-back was often accused of being too nice, and a disciplinary issue with senior players which helped lay the groundwork for his exit may have been a result of that, but BBC Sportscene host Thompson has noted that there would be no such issue with ex-Bears defender Muscat.
He told BBC Sport: “It really does depend where the board now wants to go, but make no mistake, this isn’t the same job Van Bronckhorst faced a year ago where he had to get a tune out of a team who had previously won the league.
“This is a massive rebuild.
“My old team-mate Kevin Muscat has been mentioned, who has done really well at Yokohama. He didn’t suffer fools as a player, I can’t imagine he’s changed much.
“That was always something levelled at Gio that he wouldn’t tear strips off people – that wouldn’t be the case with Kevin.”
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The Australian, who spent a season at Ibrox in 2002-2003, is not a character who has often been accused of being too nice, so would mark a major departure from the previous manager.
It has been suggested that all the most successful Gers bosses have had a tough side, and while Van Bronckhorst was no soft touch he perhaps didn’t possess the kind of fear factor with his players that was necessary.
With Muscat having success after succeeding Celtic’s Ange Postecoglou in the J League, the prospect of the two Australians facing off on either side of the Old Firm rivalry after one had followed the other from Melbourne to Yokohama, the narrative is almost too good to ignore.
But it is former Steven Gerrard assistant Michael Beale who is currently the man in pole position to take over, with QPR ready to let him leave.
He clearly knows Rangers well, and knows what it takes to have success with the blue half of Glasgow as well, but with the landscape very different to when he left a year ago it is a different job now, as Thompson stated.
He will have the respect of much of the squad, but with a number of the players that know him likely to be shipped out it’s debatable how much that will be a factor going forward.
If he does take over he will need to be able to tear a few strips of people like Muscat if he is going to improve standards which appear to have slipped alarmingly over the past 12 months.
In other Rangers news, the manager hunt has moved fast and one candidate now is expected to land the job.