Dave King: Giovanni van Bronckhorst was forced out of Rangers like Steven Gerrard
Dave King believes that Steven Gerrard and Giovanni van Bronckhorst were “forced out” of Rangers in the last year by the board.
Van Bronckhorst was sacked on Monday (21 November) just days after his one year anniversary since taking over from Steven Gerrard, who left to take a role at Aston Villa last year with the team top of the SPFL table.
It’s been claimed that Van Bronckhorst wanted more investment in the squad than was given to him, and King believes the board’s refusal to help him and Gerrard before him essentially forced them out of Ibrox.
“I am a supporter who is worried about what is going on. I am also a shareholder, so I’m in the same position as many of you,” he said to fans, as quoted by The Sun (23 November).
“What I can say is that Gio probably ended up in a similar situation to Steven.
“Steven was there, won 55, wanted to kick on and was given certain commitments by the chairman as to what resources would be made available to him.
“It was very important for Steven to kick on, to win the title and to start our own run for ten-in-a-row.
“We must remember we are only talking a short period of time ago. We won the league by a country mile, and our opposition were in turmoil throughout the summer and couldn’t get a manager.
“The position Rangers were in at the beginning of last season was one where I thought we would embark on a number of titles and go on to win a number in a row.
“I believe Steven was let down in terms of the money that was promised to him, and his relationship with the chairman got to the point where he was effectively forced out.
“To me, I don’t think the circumstances that forced Steven out of the club were any better when Gio came in.
“Therefore, I am kind of guarded in my comments about Gio and Ross.
“The best thing I can say is that in my experience of working with Ross, I certainly found him to be very professional and very thorough.
“I am very concerned at the extent to which Ross would have got the support from the club. Over the last year, I think they probably came up against some of the same obstacles with the board that Steven did and led effectively to him being forced out at a time when he was top of the league.”
Awful
The decision to sack Van Bronckhorst was correct, as results and performances haven’t been anywhere near good enough and we were going backwards.
But it’s hard to argue with the fact the board put him in a position where he was handicapped by finances, despite two huge transfer windows that saw the club bring in vast amounts of money after selling Nathan Patterson, Calvin Bassey and Joe Aribo.
He was able to make several signings during the summer window, but many of them were of a minimal fee and there were plenty of loans and free transfers too.
That certainly limits the amount of quality that can be injected to the squad, and after losing such quality it was destiny that the team wouldn’t kick on despite his performances in the Europa League and getting to the Champions League group stages.
The board didn’t help, and unless they can kick on and offer the new man – whoever that is – some real backing in the transfer market then this is just the start of a vicious cycle at Ibrox.
In other Rangers news, key man could get Ibrox lifeline if major development takes place