Another hurdle has been created to explain the failure of the Ibrox board to appoint a replacement for Steven Gerrard.
On Saturday it was reported that positive talks had taken place with Giovanni van Bronckhorst but yesterday a private jet returned to Glasgow with an empty seat.
Despite the upbeat messages being relayed to fans from favoured media outlets it is obvious that van Bronckhorst has some serious concerns about taking the job on. It isn’t 1998 when Dave Murray and Dick Advocaat had unlimited access to a magic money tree (Bank of Scotland).
With just three full days left to prepare the squad for Sunday’s League Cup semi-final against Hibs Jermain Defoe is in charge of training.
So far out his depth it is incredible. Not a grain of decency, no relationship with supporters/shareholders, no personality. Nothing. An empty grey suit with complete contempt for the customers. He detests Celtic fans, be in no doubt.https://t.co/EP0ZNo1bHS
— Joe McHugh (@videocelts) November 17, 2021
As well as trying to agree a salary and transfer budget for January van Bronckhorst won’t be able to call on his long term assistant who is currently earning a fortune with Guangzhou City in the Chinese Super League, taking over as manager when van Bronckhorst got dismissed.
The Sun reports:
CHINESE club Guangzhou City have insisted their manager Jean-Paul van Gastel is going nowhere despite being strongly linked as Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s No.2 at Rangers.
Rangers have been in talks with their former player to succeed Steven Gerrard and the Dutchman reportedly wants his former assistant as Feyenoord to join him in Glasgow.
However, the 49-year-old former Dutch international is currently manager of Guangzhou City in the Chinese Super League and has six months of his contract left there.
He moved to the rival club after being assistant manager to van Bronckhorst at Guangzhou R&F, before the former Feyenoord manager quit to return home for family reasons in December.
And reports in China have indicated his club are NOT expecting him to demand to leave his job to follow mentor van Brockhorst to Scotland with Rangers.
He guided them to the top four in the Chinese Super League Group A which has put them into the Championship stage after a league split when the title race resumes after a three-month break.
Chinese media reported Guangzhou City as stating: “Jean-Paul van Gastel is currently preparing the team for the Super League Championship Stage which starts in December. He has offered no communication with us about leaving.”
Derek McInnes, Barry Ferguson, Tommy Wright, Shelley Kerr and Nuno Espirito Santo have also been linked with the Ibrox vacancy.