The old adage that if “you’re good enough, you’re old enough” is used all the time in football and it’s one that, encouragingly, the new Rangers manager is happy to apply.
For the past few seasons Steven Gerrard applied it in reverse whereby if a player was good enough, it didn’t matter how old they were as in the cases of Allan McGregor, Jermain Defoe and Steven Davis, but now it looks as though we have the right man, at the right time to lead us forward and provide the spark that has been missing this season.
Speaking as part of his unveiling, Giovanni van Bronckhorst made the effort to explain that he has thrown plenty of young players in at the deepend in his time as manager and won’t be afraid to do it again:
“I like players to work hard and to show me and club they want to play, that they want to do everything possible to be good in games and training.
“It’s a new beginning for them.
“I’m a coach who will give confidence to everyone and will make sure everyone gives 100 percent, no matter how young or old you are.
“If you’re good enough for me, you can play.”
At the moment, we only really have Nathan Patterson and Stephen Kelly in and around the first-team but the likes of Leon King, Juan Alegria and Charlie McCann have been involved in training, B team top scorer Tony Weston also doing his claims no harm by regularly finding the net.
The biggest debate will obviously be about finding Patterson more game time, we know who is in front of him in the team but this shouldn’t make him immune to being dropped – despite the numbers he regularly posts.
For those that want James Tavernier dropped straight away though, it has to be remembered just how important he is, with three goals and 11 assists in 20 appearances the good, still, far outweighs the bad.
Reputation though looks like it will count for nothing under the new gaffer which should mean that those that have become complacent and let standards drop should find game time hard to come by – the hard work starts here for Gio.