Gio van Bronckhorst has never had the dreaded tap on the shoulder as a manager but he knows in this game it’s certain to come one day. He’s determined it won’t happen at Rangers though.
The Ibrox boss is well aware the axe man is never far away from the men in the dugout and the point landed close to home with his Light Blue predecessor Steve Gerrard getting jottered at Aston Villa this week. Van Bronckhorst feels sympathy for the title winning Gers hero but he’s got his own issues to deal with back in Glasgow.
Like the calls from some Rangers fans for him for similar action to be taken in Govan after early season frustration boiled over at the end of the dour Dundee League Cup win the other night. Van Bronckhorst can – understandably – point to some facts. Gers are just two points off the top of the table and in the last four in the Premier Sports Cup.
He also managed to negotiate the qualifiers and deliver Champions League football at Ibrox for the first time in more than a decade. Okay, it’s not been much fun once they got there, but it was still no less an achievement.
And that’s all before anyone considered the incredible run to the Europa League Final last term and Scottish Cup success. Flip side? He took a league winning team and lost the title. Has been hammered a couple of times by Celtic are suffered hefty thumping in the Champions League.
Even a fair few of the domestic wins have been a cure for insomnia for a support chasing the adrenaline rushes of last season. Van Bronckhorst knows the life of a manager is precarious – but he’s also determined to not let the outside noise knock him off course.
He hasn’t been sacked yet after spells at Feyenoord and Guangzhou and has no intention of suffering it now. Van Bronckhorst said: “You don’t cope with it! Honestly, you don’t cope with it.
“I did my badges and they said once you are head coach, there is one thing for sure – at one time in your career you will get sacked. Hopefully it won’t happen, but they prepare you for those situations.
“As a player I had to perform in quite high pressure moments for clubs and the national team, so I am used to the pressure. The pressure is the same as a manager. There are time you feel it when the team is not performing, you are not getting the right results and are suffering defeats.
“The experience I have I can make sure I can keep away from the pressure and keep concentrating on the work. Eventually the worst feeling is the moment you get sacked. If you haven’t been sacked as a coach, you can’t really prepare for that, when everything comes out.
“Hopefully in my career I’ll never get sacked. But if the days comes I need to make sure I can look in the mirror and know I did everything I could to overturn it.”
That’s where van Bronckhorst is now. He doesn’t believe it’s critical at Ibrox just yet with Livingston heading to Ibrox today looking to make life even more awkward.
He said: “I’ve been in a bad situation with Feyenoord when we were not playing really well and having bad results. Now it’s a bit different. We’re still winning, but not in a convincing way over 90 minutes. But in spells of the games the game play has been good.
“I think it’s a different situation. You’ll hear the crowd booing in the end so its a signal something hasn’t gone the proper way.
“For us it was those last 25 minutes when we played really bad, but were happily 1-0 up. You don’t want to have any more of those moments and that’s why we have spent the last couple of days focusing on our structure, making sure we don’t drop our standards.
“This is a chance for us to play well over 90 minutes at home, win it well and make sure the crowd leaves without booing.”
Getting jeered off after a win might be a new thing to a lot of Gers stars. But the manager reckons it could be the making of them.
Van Bronckhorst said: “It’s also part of being at a big club. We have some players who have been here for years, it maybe new to some of the new players.
“We are winning but still get booed in the end. But my players will get stronger in these moments.
“Do you want to step off after 90 minutes with the same feeling, or the feeling we had when we won 4-0 away from home against Hearts? Those are different mindsets and at top clubs you need to have to win every game with a good performance.”
Van Bronckhorst knows Rangers are not firing on all cylinders and he admitted those Champions League clattering can leave some scar tissue. It’s his job to patch up his men and get them back in the game, with Livingston today a big one before a rather daunting trip to Napoli next midweek.
Van Bronckhorst said: “You can’t just switch off when you go from Champions League to the league. I can feel it myself, as can the players and the fans. When you come off a defeat it can affect you.
“We’ve done well with the domestic games after Europe but we’re all human. If you have bad results it will affect you.
“The most important thing is to react and leave it behind as quickly as possible. Feel the emotion of the defeat but the next game is the important one.”
None more so than today if the boos and the sack talk are to be silenced around Ibrox.
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