It looks like Rangers could be fighting fire with fire after all.
The nonsensical performance of Kevin Clancy on Wednesday night is still being debated, that both teams were unhappy with his display tells you everything you need to know about how inept it really was.
Sky Sports have reported that Rangers have not only held talks with the SFA but have written to ask for clarification on as many as eight decisions that the whistler made a mess of, the must have ran out of paper because watching the game back it was well into double figures in terms of questionable calls.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst was asked about the fall out from the ref’s efforts and he was a pains to emphasise that improvement in standards across the board should always be the target, with or without VAR:
“For a referee, they also have to review their own games. To review the games and maybe see things that could have been done better or mistakes that were made.
“We all make mistakes. But you have that process to become a better referee. I don’t see anything wrong with that.
“That’s why I’m also reviewing how my team played, I review the decisions I make.
“In the end, you have to learn from your mistakes and make sure you become a better coach, manager or player, but also a better referee. I don’t see anything negative about that, only positives.”
If Rangers fans are expecting for and brimstone from Gio they could be disappointed, it just isn’t in his style, publicly at least. Steven Gerrard wasn’t shy in making complaints about decisions but it never really seemed to do us much good so perhaps the Dutchman’s approach could pay dividends.
Leaving the complaints to those behind the scenes is the right thing to do because as we’ve seen across the city, the precedent has been made for what can and can’t be said – Celtic’s chairman not being held to account for having “concerns” about the officiating in Scotland – if our manager says something, you can guarantee he would find himself spending time in the stands – if only the referees had to meet the same standards.