Dangerous moments these in the managerial lifespan of Giovanni van Bronckhorst. They won’t be chasing him down Edmiston Drive with lit torches and pitchforks should he crash and burn at the first hurdle in the Champions League qualifiers.
No, he has too much credit rolled over from last season to become the second top flight casualty of the summer following Graham Alexander’s dismissal at Motherwell for overseeing a European collapse of similarly toe curling proportions. But, even so, if the Dutchman cannot find a way of overturning a shambolic first leg performance against Union Saint-Gilloise when he gets these Belgian minnows back to Ibrox, then it will leave a major stain against his name nonetheless.
It was only 12 months ago, after all, when Steven Gerrard was staring at the beginning of the end after failing to see off Malmo in the summer eliminators and even though the Scouser was eventually lured into accepting a lucrative ticket back to England’s Premier League, he had the shrewd judgement to jump before he was pushed.
Make no mistake, had Gerrard turned down Aston Villa’s advances and hung around for long enough to be relieved of the league title by Ange Postecoglou then his time at Rangers would have been up in any case. And that’s precisely the way it was all heading before he darted across the border, leaving a trail of dust behind him, to make room for Van Bronckhorst’s arrival.
A horrible start to the campaign had buffeted his team into a tailspin and Gerrard reached for the ejector seat rather than allow his own reputation to go down in flames. This rapid domestic decline ultimately proved to be unrecoverable even with a new man at the controls. But Van Bronckhorst’s running repairs allowed Rangers to soar to a Europa League final as well as end the season with a Scottish Cup celebration which is why his stock remains reasonably high despite last week’s botched job in Belgium. Turn it all around and that first leg will be dismissed as nothing more serious than a minor bump in the road.
Conversely, failure to progress into the playoff round will require a post mortem to be carried out before the Dutch boss’ first full season is even properly up and running. And there won’t be much in the way of wriggle room left in circumstances like that, never mind good will.
With all that in mind Van Bronckhorst must be feeling a little tight around the collar at the manner in which his new look team has been performing over the last fortnight. Yes, he may have lost two of his biggest talents in Joe Aribo and Calvin Bassey but such is the life of a football manager at 99 per cent of clubs all over the world.
But that’s the thing about implementing player trading models. Selling your best ones for big money is actually the easy bit. The real trick is in reinvesting it so astutely the resulting changes are seamless and hardly noticed. It’s early days, of course but even so, that is not the case where this ongoing Rangers rebuild is concerned.
Put it this way, Aribo and Bassey would walk into van Bronckhorst’s starting XI on Tuesday night if they were available for selection. Which, in itself, points to a team moving in the wrong direction. Van Bronckhorst has carried out a major recruitment drive since sanctioning their departures and he’s been around the block often enough to know that new arrivals often require time to bed in.
But he might have reasonably expected that at least one of his seven signings might have caught fire from the start. That not one of them has sparked so far will be causing the manager concern. Yes, Malik Tillman looks every inch like a Bayern Munich player. For 15 minutes at a time.
But a spluttering playmaker that produces in fits and starts is not going to get the job done on Tuesday night. Rabbi Matondo went missing in action in the first leg so can the Welshman be trusted to turn up when it matters more than ever with £40m about to go on the line?
Van Bronckhorst too got it horribly wrong last week when he adopted an overly cautious approach in the middle of the pitch and then panicked into redeploying John Lundstram as a central defender the moment Union had his Plan A sussed.
So, with all of the above in mind, perhaps now would be the perfect time for the Rangers manager to rely upon his most tried and tested performers and have faith in them to see off a side of limited ability and even less European experience. The return of Steven Davis to the Rangers line-up on Saturday ought to be a sign of things to come on Tuesday.
Davis might be 37 years old but he was head and shoulders the best player on the pitch against Kilmarnock. Quite simply, despite all of his searching, Van Bronckhorst doesn’t have another player in his dressing room as capable of dominating a midfield and controlling it as the immaculate Northern Irishman.
He may also have a role in mind for Scott Arfield who has proven his attacking worth time and again as a player who can change games operating
behind - and running beyond - a main striker.
If Alfredo Morelos has enough in the tank then he too would be worth an hour even though the Colombian’s 26 minutes against Killie were his first in four months. Ryan Kent is another who must start if he’s remotely close enough to being fit.
And then there’s the curious case of Allan McGregor who has started this season as second choice keeper in a move which, again, points to a team moving backwards. If Jon McLaughlin was not regarded as being good enough to be Rangers No.1 last season what exactly has improved about his game over the summer to make him deserving of the mantle now? At the age of 34.
And if it’s more a matter of McGregor being in decline then why was the old timer given a new contract? Either way, it looks like another retrograde step and yet more reason for Van Bronckhorst’s decision making to go under the microscope if it all backfires again on Tuesday. For the manager’s sake - and for all of Scottish football - it’s to be hoped these recriminations can be avoided. But these are dangerous moments nonetheless.
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