James Sands admits he came to Rangers to work under Gio Van Bronckhorst and that he felt 'behind' when Michael Beale arrived.
The American's spell in Glasgow came to an end last month after initially making a loan switch from New York City FC in January of 2022 on an 18-month deal. Sands made his debut quite quickly under the Dutchman who was finding his feet as new Rangers boss after the departure of Steven Gerrard to Aston Villa.
The 22-year-old has secured the MLS Cup under ex-Celtic boss Ronny Deila before his arrival, with the Ibrox side holding an option to buy on the deal. But Sands found game time hard when Van Bronckhorst was given his marching orders last year, only playing a total of 14 minutes in the Scottish Premiership in 2023. This, he believes, was due to being 'behind' when Beale launched his system.
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On the impact of Gio's sacking, he told On Frame: "Definitely. A big reason in the first place why I went to Rangers was Giovanni van Bronckhorst. He was a coach I was aware of and I was familiar with his style of play, which I thought really suited me.
"The first six months I was there was just getting used to a new country and a new team. The start of this season I played a lot more consistently and was involved in pretty much every game, then the club let Gio go and brought in Michael Beale.
"He is a really good coach and a lot of the guys had previous experience with him, so I felt a bit behind everyone at the start. He just had a different approach to the game which maybe didn't suit me.
"I did (get honest feedback from Beale). He said he really liked me as a player and one of the first sit-downs I had with him, he said when he looks at new players, he likes to ask other player how they feel about that person and what he said to me was the team really respected you as a player and someone he had no problem putting on.
"But at the end of the day there are guys he liked better and guys he had worked with before so it became harder to get games."
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