GIOVANNI VAN BRONCKHORST quit his last major job as manager of Feyenoord because of his 'gut feeling' and a barrage of abuse towards his family.
The Rangers boss is under huge pressure at Ibrox after a 2-1 defeat at St Johnstone left them trailing Celtic by seven points after their atrocious Champions League campaign which saw them labelled as the worst team of all time in the group stages.
Van Bronckhorst has been in charge of Rangers since succeeding Steven Gerrard just short of a year ago, but previously managed former club Feyenoord for four years.
He also had a short stint in charge of Chinese club Guangzhou R&F, before he took charge at Ibrox and led them to a memorable Europa League Final.
But his final season in Rotterdam was marred by poor results and he announced he would be leaving at the end of the season in January 2019 after a dismal 3-1 defeat at PEX Zwolle - their fourth of the season. They were also eliminated from Europe by Slovakian minnows Trencin FC that season.
They were 13 points behind leaders PSV Eindhoven and 11 points behind second placed Ajax when van Bronckhorst announced he would be leaving at the end of the season.
He said: " I have thought a lot about whether I want to remain head coach of Feyenoord for one or more years after this season.
"That was a very difficult decision because Feyenoord is in my heart. However, in my career, I have always followed my gut feeling and my gut feeling now tells me not to. It's fine this way."
And he'd also complained about the abuse his family suffered after his wife got a sickening message wishing their children get an illness.
He said: "People who wish your children a deadly disease, that is quite intense. I myself am quite sober in life, but it also concerns my wife and children. They usually react differently.
"No, these kinds of messages have I never had as a player, then there was hardly any talk of social media.
"I understand very well that people are disappointed, but this goes too far. We are looking with my management and the club also whether we can do anything about it.”
Feyenoord reacted to van Bronckhorst's news of his future departure by thrashing Ajax 6-2 in their very next game, but they went on to lose nine league games and ended up in third spot, 21 points behind Ajax when he left.
