Eleven words. Spoken in less than five seconds.
“For us to compete with them, it’s too much to ask.” That’s a sentence potentially even more damaging than the 4-0 trouncing Gio van Bronckhorst ’s Rangers players had suffered against Ajax in the 90 minutes which had just finished. A second 4-0 drubbing in the space of four days.
But it was the manager’s choice of reasoning that will continue to reverberate round Ibrox and Scottish football for days, weeks and perhaps until the Light Blues prove they CAN put up a resistance against Europe’s big boys. Loose lips sink ships they say and if van Bronckhorst isn’t careful his Dutch debrief could soon mark the unravelling of his hard work in returning Rangers to the crest of the European wave. Supporters won’t accept it. Players lacking in bravery - and there were plenty of those in Amsterdam - will hide behind them. And who knows what the board made of it all?
Just 14 days earlier in the same country van Bronckhorst had hailed his side’s defeat of PSV Eindhoven and rightly boasted: “It is a very proud moment. I know what it means for the fans, for the club, to be playing in the highest level in Europe, competing with the best teams.” Yet a fortnight later the Ibrox boss was performing a perfect 180 when he uttered that 11 word soundbite that made eyebrows arch and jaws drop.
If it’s really too much to ask of Rangers to be competitive in the Champions League, what on earth was the point in qualifying for the big stage in the first place? Why were there celebrations after that impressive victory in Eindhoven - a PSV side by the way which had dismantled Ajax twice in cup finals in the last four months?
And how can the manager’s perspective change so dramatically in two weeks? No doubt the answer lies right in the middle of that fraught fortnight.
Transfer deadline day when there wasn’t even a hint of a new face to bolster van Bronckhorst’s squad arriving in Govan. The week between securing a £30m Champions League bounty and the transfer window slamming shut brought nothing in the door.
Van Bronckhorst’s Amsterdam outburst was referring to the hundreds of millions banked and spent by the powerhouses in Rangers’ group in comparison to the £10m or so signed off from the Ibrox chequebook.
This appears to be the Dutchman’s Steven Gerrard moment. A coded message to the marble staircase hierarchy that the glass ceiling had been reached without serious investment.
It was eerily similar to Gerrard’s words from October 1 last year in which the former boss, on the back of a second Europa League group stage defeat, claimed: “To compete with the teams that we’re playing against, we have to spend big money. In the last two windows we haven’t spent a penny, so there has to be some realism there.”
That was the beginning of the end of Gerrard who was off a month later to the big boys playground where his Aston Villa spending this summer was six times of that at Ibrox.
Nobody is suggesting van Bronckhorst is working his ticket. But he needs to get more out of everyone at the club including himself.
The truth to this whole rotten week for Rangers is that fault lies in every corner at Ibrox. Another transfer window has passed where the sum of the parts at van Bronckhorst’s disposal seem less than when the window opened back in June.
Three of the seven-figure signings that have been brought in - Ben Davies, Rabbi Matondo and Ridvan Yilmaz - were on the bench in Amsterdam and only Antonio Colak has been anything near a regular starter. In other words the recruitment drive has failed to move the squad forwards.
Van Bronckhorst can’t hide behind that though. The performance of the teams he puts on the park lie on his shoulders and the last two have been woeful.
Lacking in tactical awareness but more worryingly energy and desire. Conceding three goals in the opening 40 minutes once is bad. Twice in succession is almost inconceivable.
Gifting free headers from corners is a cheap yet extremely costly recurring theme. But perhaps the most galling is the sight of players throwing in the towel.
I have no doubt Van Bronckhorst or his coaching staff would ever chuck it after half a game. But his words afterwords were anything but helpful.
Which brings us back to the point of competing. Nobody was questioning budgets seven months ago when a Borussia Dortmund side - boasting £10.5m goalkeeper Gregor Kobel £10.5m and £26m Donyell Malen, not to mention Jude Bellingham, Marco Reus and Axel Witsel - were put to the sword.
Nine of the Rangers players who started in the Westfalonstadion were in Amsterdam on Wednesday. Likewise just back in April a Leipzig side that had spent over £60m bringing in stars including Andre Silva, Iiax Moriba and Benjamin Henrichs was rolled over after two legs thanks to van Bronckhorst’s tactical nous and the players’ ability to take his instructions on board.
The bottom line is that Rangers have gone backwards at an alarming rate and whether that’s down to van Bronckhorst or the board’s reluctance to spend in the summer is a point for debate. What’s not for arguing is that the manager and players need a big performance when they return to action. And they should be capable of at least competing.
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