Rangers are without a coach again. Giovanni van Bronckhorst sacked for worst Champions League performance in a year

Giovanni van Bronckhorst ended up on the Rangers FC bench when management decided to make a change. The Dutch coach thus paid the price for the worst Champions League performance in the competition’s history and a nine-point deficit to rivals Celtic in the league. Last season, he led the club to several successes.

Van Bronckhorst replaced Steven Gerrard on the Scottish club’s bench at the end of last year, who is also already out of a job, having not put up with poor results at Aston Villa.

This makes the former outstanding flanker one of the least serving coaches at Rangers, with only Pedro Caixinha and Paul Le Guen having been given less time.

Meanwhile, Rangers won the Scottish Cup last season and reached the Europa League final where they lost to Frankfurt. This is a great achievement that fans have been waiting for for many years.

However, the new season has got off to a shaky start, and apart from the aforementioned entry into the Champions League annals, the Scottish Premiership is not doing well either, with the traditional Glasgow side already 9 points behind their city rivals. They have lost 4-0 in the league this season.

Editor Kris Boyd sees four factors behind this move, which he discusses for Sky Sports: Failed transfers, failure in European cups, injuries and frustrated fans, but that obviously stems from the first three factors.

The first ever game van Bronckhorst experienced on the Rangers bench was against Sparta, who lost 2-0 in Scotland. The opening match in Prague was won by the team from Letná 1: 0.

There is no talk of a replacement. However, Gerrard’s return is probably not on the agenda, since the fans cannot forgive him for letting them down and leaving for Aston Villa. In doing so, they were delighted with his sacking, which they made very clear immediately after the news.

Many Rangers players have, like many other players, had a “holiday” because of the World Cup in Qatar. Their next game is against Hibernian on December 15, after which they will play Aberdeen, Ross County, Motherwell and then face Celtic again on January 2.

Source: Sky Sports, Transfermarkt