Rangers icon Brian Laudrup insists Gio Van Bronckhorst is entitled to his Rangers opinion but believes the under-fire Ibrox manager's body language is off.
The Dutchman branded Laudrup 's assertion he'd thrown in the towel in "stupid" but the pressure remains on after the Ibrox side's stuttering draw with St Mirren leaves them nine points adrift of runaway leaders Celtic. A sizeable section of the Rangers support believe Van Bronckhorst's time is up but Record Sport understands no boardroom talks have taken place over the manager's future despite the Premiership entering a five-week break for the World Cup.
And Laudrup is adamant Van Bronckhorst's perceived downbeat body language is not what players want as they try to weather the storm amid a wonky run of results which includes six defeats in the worst Champions League campaign in history. Speaking in his Daily Mail column, he said: "Last week, I spoke about Van Bronckhorst's body language, his whole demeanour, really and whether it looked as though he truly believed he could turn things around in terms of recent performances and results.
"I know he responded to me with some comments of his own. He was perfectly entitled to do so. I have no problem with that at all. But I stand by what I said. Because the point I was trying to make was about the impression it gave to others. Including players. I was thinking back to my time and whether I'd seen a manager look the downbeat way Van Bronckhorst did as his team lost to St Johnstone. Even in Van Bronckhorst's own playing days, he might have wondered what was going on if his manager didn't look as if he could change things or turn it around. The Dutchman has been through so much this season. Saturday's 1-1 draw with St Mirren was yet another blow. It was more of the same, really.
"After the game, Van Bronckhorst spoke about not being certain whether he would still be in charge after the World Cup break. Again, to me, it looked like someone who wanted a decision to be made on whether he is the man or not. That's now down to the Ibrox board. I said last week that the call on whether to back Van Bronckhorst or make a change had to come early in the World Cup break. I noticed Kenny Miller saying something similar at the weekend. It just makes sense. Obviously, there is a financial element to be considered when thinking about ending contracts and that's not straightforward. The biggest question, though, would surely be about who comes in next.
"All these elements have to be carefully thought through. But if there is to be a new manager at Rangers, you'd still want it to happen as quickly as possible so they have the best possible chance to work with the players ahead of the restart."
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