Hibernian manager, Lee Johnson has let the cat out of the bad regards Mick Beale’s predecessor and the revealed the real reason why Giovanni van Bronckhorst was relieved of his duties at Ibrox. After the departure of one from nine Slippy G – Callum Davidson got two – last November to the lure of the English Premier League and Aston Villa, the Dutchman was drafted in primarily because he could work under austerity.
His previous exploits in the Eredivisie in Holland, where he split the hegemony of Ajax and PSV with a fraction of the budget, ticked every box for Douglas Park and his fellow directors and thus, Van Bronckhorst got the position. It started out so well as they chanted the wee man’s name and dressed in orange, but the feel-good vibe wasn’t to last.
Despite having a four-point advantage over Ange Postecoglou and his team, the former Feynoord manager was leapfrogged in the cinch Premiership league table after the New Year and Celtic never looked back. With merely the consolation of a Europa League Final place and Scottish Cup in the end, the famous “fold like a deck of cards” hope was just that: hope.
For Van Bronckhorst, nor any other manager who would be hamstrung by the financial straightjacket that the new Ibrox club had gotten itself tied in to would be able to catch this Ange Postecoglou side. The fact of the matter is this: we are a better outfit than they are and we are still adding to this squad. With players like Juranovic also touted for £20 million-plus transfers, we also have the future rebuild safeguarded.
Lee Johnson has acknowledged this pertinent fact and revealed this boils down to why Gio was relieve of his duties as theRangers boss. Speaking ahead of his clash with new man in the dugout, Mick Beale, the Hibs manager said: “I’m always an advocate of keeping managers in situ because I think managers are often blamed for the results and normally there’s a bigger picture there, as reported by Herald Sport.
“I understand the pressure falls on the manager because it’s your name on the door. But if I believed I had the right man in place, I would give him an adequate amount of windows to change it round. I would understand recent success, I would look at the context. And I feel that, with Rangers, maybe the expectation was so high and sometimes you can be a victim of your own success. I think it’s a classic example of that. I suppose we’ll only know that in a year, 18 months depending on how the new regime does.
“I think Gio could walk away with his head held high, look himself in the mirror and know he’s done absolutely everything he can. Celtic are a top side and obviously they’re chasing those guys. From my point of view, you look at it from the outside, they’re just not as good. Simple as that. I’m not there to judge, I don’t watch every game. All I see is a good man who’s worked his socks off and lost his job, and a good coaching staff.”
It’s an unspoken truth that everyone in the mainstream media in Scotland is terrified to say, as it goes against the policy of their paymasters in the Ibrox boardroom. Lee Johnson isn’t beholden to such an oath, so has no compunction whatsoever calling it like it is. So weird that in this country our press are so selective about what they print..
Paul Gillespie
