Football News: Gio deserves a chance to turn things around at Rangers

I know lots of you don't understand why and this won't be popular but I genuinely believe this for a few reasons.

Money in the bank - Both literally and figuratively. Gio took us to a European final last season which earned the club millions, and not just from UEFA, TV and match day income. This run allowed Rangers to smash our transfer record in the summer in deals excess of 30M. This has put the club on a sound financial footing for the first time in about 20 years. When you add the first qualification for Champions league in 12 years and the finances from that, his year in charge has reaped great rewards for the club.

In addition to the money, last year's run was one of the most exciting times to be a Rangers fan, taking on top clubs and beating them while playing some really attractive football. He also showed real tactical nous in games, switching formations and using players out if position in really effective ways. This all means he rightly has some credit left with which to try and turn things around.

There is understandable doubt from many that he can turn this around and I am not so sure he will myself. However there have been challenges this season for him to deal with i.e. injuries, injuries and more injuries.

Helander, Goldson, Soutter, Davies, King, Yilmaz, Jack, Kamara, Lawrence, Hagi, Lowry, Morelos, Roofe and Colak. 14 players unavailable, most for significant periods of time. This is unprecedented and would be a challenge for any squad. The impact this has had on the fit players has however been understated. The World Cup has caused major fixture congestion, which has meant playing 2 games a week all season. With the injury list as it was the lack of rotation available to the manager, has left the team limping into the World Cup break, dropping points they would expect to pick up.

The only part not to be affected by injury has been wide forward areas, which has been arguably the worst performing area of the team.

This takes us on to the next challenge and that is form. The manager does take responsibility for this, no doubt, but there have been serious difficulties here also. The Champions League this year was going to be so exciting, or so we thought after last years run. Even when a difficult group was released, we really fancied our chances. In reality we were up against some top sides who were simply too good for us.

This proved a huge challenge for the manager, taking a beating midweek to then try and get results domestically. He was doing a good job picking up results with players low in confidence and in poor form during this period. Morelos and Kent have been undeniably critical players which have been relied on during their time at the club. However this season the manager has not been able to rely on them at all. Their form has been so bad that their contract status has to be a mitigating factor which leads to the final challenge; recruitment.

Unlike most, I believe summer recruitment has been good. A first choice keeper should have been signed. I understand the club wanting to give McLaughlin a chance as he had never let us down in the past, but that was a clear mistake. That aside, we brought in a mix of experienced players to make immediate impact (Colak, Lawrence and Davies) along with some raw potential (Matondo, Tillman and Yilmaz).

The recruitment problems go back further and were unfortunately a sign of the financial instability at the club. Last year we lost circa 25 Million, mostly due to the pandemic. This was on top of year on year losses since the dark days of 2012 which saw the club being held together by the Board putting their money in to keep us solvent. During the few windows previous to the summer we spent very little on players which has obviously had an impact on the quality of player brought in. Won't mention names but we all know who these players are.

For a comparison, though I don't like even talking about them, Celtic have spent circa 83 Million Euros the last three years. During that time Rangers have spent circa 18 Million Euros. Everyone in Scotland goes on like Ange is the best manager ever, but those figures are the real reason there is a gap between the two teams at this time. The board cannot be held accountable for this as we could not risk going back to 2012 by spending money that was just not there.

With all of this to deal with, I believe Gio does deserve a chance to turn things around. Get some players back from injury and a couple additions in January and let him have the remainder of the season to see if he can challenge for the League and win a cup or two.

Written by TommyGunxxx November 15 2022 08:23:03