Brand new season. Same old problem. How exactly do Rangers intend to go about ram-raiding Celtic’s trophy cabinet and bringing the title back across Glasgow’s great divide?
It has resided there for 10 of the last 11 years after all and even when Steven Gerrard successfully managed to get his hands on the trophy, it was already slipping from his grasp before he jumped ship to Aston Villa midway through last season. Now it’s Gio van Bronckhorst ’s turn to solve this puzzle which spans back over a decade.
The Dutchman has certainly made a solid start to his work this summer with Besiktas left-back Ridvan Yilmaz his seventh new recruit of a hectic transfer window. The young Turkish international finalised his move on Monday as Van Bronckhorst was throwing open the doors of Ibrox to let fans get a close-up look at an open training session – just five days before the big kick-off at Livingston on Saturday lunchtime.
And it’s fixtures precisely like this one which Van Bronckhorst has identified as holding the key to unlocking the big conundrum. Rangers’ first away day last season ended in defeat at Dundee United. Not long after they were drawing at home to Motherwell, Hearts and Aberdeen.
Two more points were dropped at Pittodrie and two more at Ross County before drawing another twice away at Tannadice and at home to Motherwell. In other words Rangers frittered away a campaign-shattering 17 points from games not against Celtic. And lost the league by just four.
No wonder then van Bronckhorst is demanding the bar is raised significantly when they arrive in West Lothian for Saturday’s showdown at the Spaghetti-had. He said: “We need to have the consistency to win every game. Of course, the Old Firm games last year were very close but if we want to be champions this year then we have to win every game, every week. That is our aim.
“We’ll have to work hard to do that because of all the European and cup games in between. But we cannot lose as many points as we did last year.”
He’s not exactly reinventing the wheel with any of this analysis. It’s pretty basic stuff.
And yet van Bronckhorst is bang on all the same. If his new-look Rangers side are to come through this season in one piece and holding onto the silverware they cherish more than any other, then these error-prone displays simply have to stop. He added: “It’s always good to have five, six weeks at the beginning of the season to start with the group and train really hard. We’ve had many sessions in a row and we haven’t had that since we came here because of all the games we had to play.
“We have lost some players in the window and we have bought some players in the window so I’m really happy with the squad at the moment. Everyone is working hard to be ready for Saturday and all the games we have to play after that.”
One by one the new men are being filtered into Auchenhowie at considerable expense. This recruitment drive has been offset against the big-money sales of Joe Aribo and Calvin Bassey as well as last season’s lucrative European run. Bassey has been replaced by two new arrivals, Yilmaz and Liverpool centre-half Ben Davies.
And Davies is already planning on making this a long stay. The 26-year-old said: “I feel like the contract I’ve signed here enables me to make this a home and I want to look back at this as the best period of my career. I feel like I’ve still got a lot to give and many more years to come. I want to get settled here, feel comfortable here and show everyone what I can do, week in week out.
“It’s a massive football club with a massive history and a massive fan base. It’s not only a fan base – they are fanatical, it means everything to the people here and to the staff. That was something that I wanted to experience and be a part of. The ambitions of the club are massive, every single year they want to win every game and want to win everything that they play in.”
Davies nearly ended up in a green and white shirt not all that long ago when Celtic lined up a deal with Preston only to be gazumped by Liverpool at the 11th hour. The irony is not lost on him, even if he prefers not to talk about it.
Davies smiled and said: “There were clubs interested before I went to Liverpool. I’ve been quite fortunate that there have been clubs interested in me quite a lot throughout my career.
“But I decided to go to Liverpool. I was happy with that decision and now I’m delighted to be at Rangers. Football is football, I’m happy to be here and looking forward to attacking it.”
It’s now Davies’ job to force his way into Van Bronckhorst’s starting XI as the manager attempts to piece a new-look team together. More players are expected to leave with Van Bronckhorst admitting he has his ideal squad now firmly in his mind’s eye. The Rangers boss said: “In the coming days and weeks we will communicate with the players on what is the best thing for them to do.”
With the clock now racing down towards the weekend, the manager was also asked if he has made a decision on his first-choice keeper, now that Allan McGregor has chosen to hang around for at least one more year.
But, if he has settled on his No.1, van Bronckhorst is not quite ready to share. He said: “First I’m going to talk with my goalkeeping coach. It’s too early to say yet. First we want to communicate it to all the players.”
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