Football News: Gio van Bronckhorst's situation at Glasgow Rangers from a Board Member Point of View

I would like to try to explain Gio's situation at Glasgow Rangers from a Board Member's point of view; Not mine, not yours, from a Board Member.

Since Gio took over he's played a huge role in our lucrative Europa run, won us the Scottish Cup, and qualified us for the even more lucrative group stages of the Champion's League.

Gio has helped me and my Board Members get financially ahead of the curve. We have been prioritising balancing the books and setting the club up on a solid financial platform since the Warburton era when Dave King took the helm, post Charles Green, Craig Whyte etc.

Due to Gio's work, we have repaid loans and investors (including ourselves) ahead of schedule. We had to withhold most of the income made from the sales of Paterson, Bassey and Aribo as well in order to clear debts.

We also see Edmiston House as a huge revenue stream for decades to come. The initial outlay was substantial, but it will eventually bring a considerable amount of profit to the Club in the long term. Again, thanks to Gio, we won't be chasing our tails with this for as long and we initially planned.

Ross Wilson and Gio made moves in the transfer market to try and keep us as competitive with Celtic as possible. We can agree this has not gone to plan. We had to try and stretch the lean transfer budget to bring in bodies to cover for Aribo and Bassey as well as provide cover to areas of the pitch where we were short. Bringing in Colak, Lawrence, Matondo, Davies, Souttar and Yilmaz. Mostly bargain buys who we hope will improve under Gio's development and become assets to the team either on a performance or financial level, hopefully both.

We understood that we were not matching the transfer ambition inline with Celtic, but in order to secure, stabilise and solidify the Club's long term financial status, we had to cut back on transfer outlay. In order to help the new players and keep bodies for this season, we felt Arfield and McGregor would be a significant help on and off the Pitch in the short term.

Unfortunately, due to a mass of injuries to key players, Gio and his team have struggled to get any momentum going thus far. The Back Line and other positions needed to be chopped and changed, we have also had to play players out of position at times and to rely on a fairly inexperienced team through most of the campaign.

With players missing so far such as Helander, Goldson, Souttar, Davies, King, Yilmaz, Kamara, Jack, Hagi, Lawrence, Sakala, Lowry, Morelos and Colak, we have suffered most weeks due to having to fight on 3 fronts with Cups, League and Europe.

Most of the players left, Tavernier, Barisic, Lundstrum and Kent the most notable, played over 55 games for the Club last season and only had a 2 week break before returning to pre season games and Champions League qualifiers. There has been definite burn out in the bodies and minds of these players and with a lack of bodies fit and ready to compete, rotate or replace, the standards on the pitch have not hit the levels we know we are capable of.

Does this mean we sack Gio?

No!, we understood that this season was more of a 'Hit and Hope' campaign, so that we could really excel in years to come. Therefore, we had to prioritise accounts over the playing squad.

Do we think Gio needs to do better? Yes. Do we believe he can do better? Yes.

With substantial backing in the next two windows we expect a higher calibre of player to be brought in throughout the playing squad. We expect key players to return from injury. With the experience and development that many of our players will have gained from this season, we will be back better than ever, with most importantly a strong and stable economic position that we have not had since pre 2012. We never want the Club to come even close to a repeat of 2012, hence why this season had to happen the way it has.

We don't want to sack a manager at the first sign of a crises. We want to trust, support and believe in our man that we all collectively decided was the right man for the long term goals of the Club.

In Gio, we have an ex-player, who has tremendous experience at Ibrox, has won Cups in England, captained Arsenal, won trophies in Spain including the Champions League as well as captaining Barcelona and Holland. To be picked as captain by Arsene Wenger, Pep Guardiola and Louis van Gaal says a lot about Gio's character. He's a very well respected member of the football world and this respect is there with this Rangers team as well, who can all learn and develop under him and world class striker, Roy Makaay.

The environment at Glasgow Rangers is different to most, the expectation and scrutiny these players are put under will be a shock to our young and new players. They need time in a footballing world that doesn't allow time.

We will give Gio and his team the time and the investment needed to take the team forward. Gio understands how it works; Failure to meet long term expectations will result in a change of management.

We understand the fans concerns with the performances this season, but we ask for trust and patience and to support your Manager in these testing times.

Written by Kinghenry3rd November 16 2022 11:56:57