Sometimes a manager just knows instinctively when his number is up.
More often than not the moment comes with a sinking realisation that no matter what he says or does, the plight of his team will inevitably continue to spiral from bad to worse in any case. So if the penny didn’t drop for Giovanni van Bronckhorst on Sunday lunchtime in Perth, then it may be an act of kindness for someone at Rangers to remove him from the firing line for the sake of his own sense of wellbeing. Because the beleaguered Dutchman now looks like a man who is completely bewildered by the task he is being asked to confront.
It all feels like the job is getting away from a manager who can’t quite fathom why his team has entered into such a chaotic tailspin, just a few months after reaching the dizzying heights of last season’s Europa League final. And it has resulted in him resorting to increasingly erratic team selections, scattergun substitutions and feeble excuses as he staggers from one juddering blow on to the next.
