St Mirren’s ground is nice and handy for Glasgow Airport.
You couldn’t have blamed Giovanni van Bronckhorst if Rangers’ manager had taken advantage of that close proximity, and a lunch-time kick-off, to flee the country at high speed once the final whistle had signalled more dropped points yesterday. The man has been through enough from a variety of sources – myself included – to have earned a period of rest and recreation with his family in the Netherlands.
Gio has been the subject of psychoanalysis, psychobabble, amateur psychology and a DIY study of his personal body language in recent days. If you fold your arms and look downward when you’re standing on the touchline during matches you’ve all but chucked it in the mind, apparently. If van Bronckhorst had turned on his radio the other night he’d have heard a Rangers supporter call in and refer to him as “Giovanni Le Guen” – a reference to another Ibrox manager whose approval rating plummeted under the weight of public disdain.
And the anger of fans only increased after yesterday’s 1-1 draw with St Mirren. All of this goes with the managerial territory, of course, when you’re operating within the uniquely claustrophobic world of the Old Firm.
You might think that if Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, announces to the world that, “We are in the fight of our lives just now and we are losing. Humanity faces a choice, co-operate or perish” – it might be the cause of a pause for reflection.
A moment for a quick revision of priorities. The end is nigh and all that.
But losing the league title is what constitutes the end of the world for the supporters of Celtic and Rangers. As we will find out when Rangers hold their annual general meeting on December 6 and all and sundry at the top table are grilled on what has gone wrong so far.
Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou sat through his club’s annual meeting with shareholders 10 days’ ago and was given the full massage of his ego when one attendee said the manager was the “reincarnation of Jock Stein”. Van Bronckhorst should surely be spared a public appearance if he’s going to get verbal abuse from those who have accused him of football’s equivalent of industrial misconduct.
The team, according to the most vocal critics, lack fitness, motivation and organisation. The manager’s demeanour is a source of irritation, not inspiration, for fans who equate animation with ambition.
But van Bronckhorst at least deserves acknowledgement for the way he has conducted himself under duress. I hear no racy tales of spats with journalists who have highlighted the deficiencies in Rangers’ season.
No red cards for the press such as the one I received back in the mists of time when I was ‘asked’ to leave a press conference at Celtic’s social club when Kenny Dalglish was in interim charge of the team and their season was disintegrating.
You can’t revise recent history and say anything other than van Bronckhorst has slipped, stumbled and fallen when faced with big hurdles at domestic and European level. Some small ones as well.
Or deny there is the distinct possibility his services will be dispensed with if Rangers emerge from a longer-than-normal break in the season and fall any further behind in the championship.
But he has conducted himself with commendable dignity and resisted a voluntary character change by way of playing to the gallery.
It was only slightly reassuring to appreciate over-the-top condemnation is not unique to this country when van Bronckhorst told the story of how retribution works in Holland.
When his time at Feyenoord was coming to a contentious end, his wife received a communication that said her husband’s critics hoped the couple’s children suffered from a deadly disease. No depths of that sort have been plumbed here but the manager remains suspect in the eyes of those who think folding your arms is an act of human weakness.
Van Bronckhorst can be blamed for a lot of things that have gone wrong at Ibrox because they’re too highly visible to be overlooked. But he has absolutely no need to apologise for being a civilised human being.
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