GIOVANNI VAN BRONCKHORST thought he had seen and heard it all before. As the game has moved on, so has the world around it.
For a manager, that isn’t necessarily a good thing. From newspapers to podcasts, social media to phone-ins, there has never been a time like it for opinions to be shared or voices heard.
The Dutchman knows he can’t change the environment in which he operates. Indeed, his position at Ibrox only encapsulates and intensifies the situation as Press, former players and punters have their say on Rangers’ fortunes this term.
Criticism and comment is par for the course when you have endured a record-breaking campaign in Europe and sit seven points adrift of Celtic before the midway point of the campaign and Van Bronckhorst is as cognisant as anyone about life in the Old Firm bubble.
But he also has the experience and strength of character not to let it get to him and previous struggles in the dugout will be counted upon as the 47-year-old seeks to emerge through his current difficulties.
His first season at Feyenoord included a sequence of seven straight defeats in a run of nine matches without a win. The following term, Van Bronckhorst delivered the Eredivise title.
“No I had worse,” Van Bronckhorst said when asked if this was the most trying period of his managerial career. “I had worse because at Feyenoord I had a period where I lost a lot of games and that was not a nice period to have because of course you want to do the best you can and if that’s not happening it’s sometimes hard.
“You see the stature of the club, it’s big. It’s well followed. In Glasgow and in Scotland we are well followed. Celtic and Rangers are the biggest clubs so they have a lot of backing and people talk about the clubs.
“That’s what I’m used to and of course you want the results to go well but when they don’t go well you have to keep fighting and face the storm.
“There are so many channels now. People have an opinion. Before you maybe had a press conference and the papers and that was it.
“Now you have all the social media and podcasts and even quoting posts of fans as headlines. Everyone can be in the papers.
“Everyone can have an opinion and the opinion is well-broadcast. That is totally different from Dick Advocaat’s time. I don’t think he even had a phone!”
Thankfully for Van Bronckhorst, his former boss and mentor has moved with the times and is easily contactable these days. Advocaat’s words of advice in private will remain between the two but there was a public backing from the Dutchman towards his countryman this week.
There are some opinions that Van Bronckhorst will take on board. The ones that he is not interested in only add to the noise level that surrounds the Ibrox boss.
“Now and then I will talk to him,” Van Bronckhorst said of the man that brought him to Ibrox in 1998. “It was nice, it’s always pleasing when you see that.
“I think because other managers know, they know the pressure you feel in certain moments and many managers have reached out to me in the last couple of weeks. That’s so nice to have that support because people are talking a lot.
“That is normal because it’s such a big club, you are under pressure, there is negativity. There are so many things that make it understandable people will talk.
“So when you have top managers who have done it all reaching out to you it’s very good to have. The support is there. It’s part of football and the message is ‘keep going.’
“Many have said just make sure I keep on doing what I am doing. I am on the right track and not to get distracted by external factors.
“You know it’s part of football. It’s the beauty of football because everyone can talk about it and everyone can be a coach. There are many people involved in football in general.”
There are few men with more experience in the game than Advocaat and the Little General is well-placed to guide Van Bronckhorst through a testing time right now.
It takes a certain kind of character to be able to live and work in Glasgow and those who don’t have the right mentality will quickly be found out regardless of their areas of expertise.
Van Bronckhorst is a calm and collected figure. Yet there is a resolve and determination about him that has been forged through good times and bad in his illustrious career.
Van Bronckhorst said: “It is also about the experience I had as a player and also as a coach at Feyenoord, when I had a very difficult period. Maybe my character is to not get distracted.
“I had that as a player and I say it to my players: when you look in the mirror and look at yourself you have to be able to say ‘ok I did everything I can, I gave everything’. That’s how I see it as a coach.
“I give everything, every day I am here, to prepare my team and to coach my team and to push them for success.
“That’s all I can do. Anything that happens outside of that, I don’t have an influence on that so it’s not influencing me.”
The next event that Van Bronckhorst can have an impact on is the trip to face St Mirren this afternoon as Rangers round off the first half of the season in Paisley.
The World Cup break offers a chance to regroup and reset after a period that has been emotionally draining and physically tiring this term. On and off the park, the hiatus has come at just the right time for Rangers.
Van Bronckhorst said: “I will go back to Holland. We will have a two week break so I will go home and spend some time with my family.
“We have decided to stay here to make sure we prepare well for the start.
“We have the Leverkusen game. We had the option to go to a training camp and sometimes it’s good to go away.
“But we have everything here. Good training pitches so we decided to stay here.
“Mentally and physically it is good to take your time, to relax a bit. But it will be like the summer when you don’t ever switch off totally.
“You are still thinking about the things you have to do. You cannot completely switch off. I won’t go to Qatar, I will go on holiday and come back here.”
