It's looking like a long road back for Gio van Bronckhorst now even if he gets the results he needs in the next week.
Defeat to St Johnstone left them trailing Celtic by seven points and after the worst Champions League group stage campaign in history, it makes for some grim reading for the Dutchman. He isn't entirely to blame of course and Ally McCoist, ever the optimist, was keen to shift some of the blame on the gaffer by filleting the much maligned recruitment from Ross Wilson and Co, amid the quest to adequately replace Calvin Bassey and Joe Aribo.
But it's not enough to get him off the hook as far as other pundits are concerned. Kris Boyd, Graeme Souness and Record Sport columnist Barry Ferguson were among the names holding Van Bronckhorst to account for the Ibrox side's dreadful recent form that has left them all but certainly needing a succession of wins over their Glasgow rivals after the break to keep their title hopes alive.
Here is everything the crew of pundits had to say.
Kris Boyd
Speaking on Sky Sports after the defeat to St Johnstone, a grimacing Boyd admits the pressure was on Van Bronckhorst even before defeat to St Johnstone left fans chanting for his head. And he knows it's usually the manager who pays the price when things hit breaking point.
He said: "Whenever it comes to that stage it is always the manager that goes. The club always find a way if they want to change the manager.
"The problem that Gio finds himself in right now is that even when Rangers were winning, or scraping by that everything was still a grind. There is frustration from the fans. They've dropped points at home to Livingston and they were booed off the pitch. Against Dundee they were booed off at half time and at full time -and now they have dropped more points here at McDiarmid.
"The frustration is already there off the back of the European results. I don't know how much longer he can go on. Once the fans start voicing their opinions, it's very difficult to turn.
"The money that was spent at the summer transfer window, a lot of the signings haven't worked - there is going to be a big overhaul needed. The question is will Giovanni van Bronckhorst and everyone else there at Rangers going to be there to see it out? I don't know."
Graeme Souness
Souness meanwhile reckons the pressure facing Van Bronckhorst now is merely "the price of the ticket" that comes with managing the club, and believes it will be "difficult" for him to pull it back. The talkSPORT pundit should know; it was his first job in management before returning to Liverpool in 1991.
He said: "Miserable European campaign, losing to Celtic… it’s going to be difficult for him to recover. He’s got to beat Celtic twice. Celtic have to slip up.
"Managing Glasgow Rangers isn’t an easy job, as I’m sure managing Celtic isn’t. There’s games you’re expected to win simply because, certainly in my day, I could have one player that I bought for more money than the whole eleven players we were playing against.
"That in itself brought its own pressure. Glasgow Rangers are expected to win every game they play and that’s the price on the ticket when you manage that enormous football club. Right now he’s under pressure."
Ally McCoist
Another former Rangers manager, McCoist has been among the softer critics and had more to say about what's going on above Van Bronckhorst. He said: "I don’t think it’s rocket science. We’ve lost players that were capable of getting a team to a Europa League Final and we’ve not replaced them with anything like the same quality or the same physicality.
"We lost Bassey for great money - £22million - to Ajax. Aribo’s away to Southampton, Patterson away to Everton These were definitely excellent players but also had a physicality about them. It’s quite simple; they’ve not been replaced to the standard of football has been nothing like as good as it was last season.
“But the problem Rangers have got now is that they're seven points behind Celtic. In typical Celtic fashion - and that’s a compliment - lost a goal to make it 2-2 round about the 89th minute and still found time to score two goals because they’ve got something about them. There’s a general concern and a real worry from the fans that the gap is going to get bigger, rather than smaller.”
But when pressed on talkSPORT for his thoughts on the football itself: "Do I need to? I was up at the game yesterday and the first thing I've got to say; two unbelievable goals from St Johnstone. I don't even mean good, I mean brilliant. That said, Callum's team were really organised but if I told the domination from Rangers, it was absolutely ridiculous.
"They had 20 corners and St Johnstone didn't have a corner. They totally dominated the ball without being dangerous. It's passing for passing's sake. They never really troubled the St Johnstone back four.
"You can tell the natives are very, very restless now. Very restless."
Barry Ferguson
Record Sport columnist Ferguson reckons it will be harder than it seems for Rangers to cut Gio adrift given the contracts handed out to him and his backroom team. Speaking the day after that defeat to St Johnstone, he said on Go Radio: "He's got a contract until 2025 and a number of backroom staff, four or five coaches. You wake up this morning and you're thinking 'is something going to happen?'
"It's clear he's going to go until the World Cup break and see what happens from there. But I just feel like I'm repeating myself. 'You need a response, you need to react, you need more aggression.' I feel I'm saying the same thing every week.
"I thought they had a bit of that at Ibrox but then you go and have a poor performance against Ajax and lose to St Johnstone. No disrespect, but they should be taking care of St Johnstone. St Johnstone were throwing bodies on the line. That's what Rangers should be doing."
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