Rangers News

Pre-season “disagreement” with senior players beginning of the end for Gio

|
Image for Pre-season “disagreement” with senior players beginning of the end for Gio

There’s been something not right about Rangers almost since the first whistle this season.

The injury list has regularly looked like our strongest XI and those that have been fit have looked like they aren’t. When Giovanni van Bronckhorst criticised his players after abject performances against Union Saint Gilloise, Celtic and Ajax, he suggested that they weren’t putting into place what had been worked on in training – which begs the question, why not?

Jordan Campbell, The Athletic’s Rangers correspondent has revealed that all might not have been as rosy behind the scenes as many would believe with an incident in pre-season causing friction between the player and management:

“Various sources confirmed to The Athletic that there was a disagreement on the final day of that Algarve trip between the Dutchman and a group of senior players after they consumed more alcohol than permitted in the team hotel.

“It was not the sort of major row that caused lasting damage, but people close to the players doubted whether disobedience would have occurred under Van Bronckhorst’s predecessor Steven Gerrard.”

Gio spoke about the squad being his regardless of how many were signed by his predecessor but, if this is true, there would appear to be an element of the players not wholly buying into what the Dutchman was trying to implement, despite what he had managed to achieve the previous season.

I’m not suggesting that the players looked to deliberately undermine the manager or play badly, however, there has clearly been an issue all season in terms of application and focus – a complete opposite to some of our Europa League and Scottish Cup performances last season.

The next appointment has to be someone who the players will run through brick walls for, we know they are capable of better, and it’s time they started showing it.

1 of 10
Rangers icon Ally McCoist celebrates his goal during a legends match with AC Milan in 2012

Which English club did Rangers sign Ally McCoist from in 1983?

Share this article