On Tuesday Dinamo Zagreb beat Chelsea and Shakhtar Donetsk hammered RB Leipzig 4-1. Teams with tiny budgets can beat far wealthier clubs.
A few months ago Giovanni van Bronckhorst was revelling in the glory after his side beating Borussia Dortmund and Leipzig, it proved what a fantastic manager he was with an incredible squad of players.
A fortnight ago, with seven summer signings replacing two departures van Bronckhorst guided his side to an aggregate victory over PSV Eindhoven to reach the group stage of the Champions League.
One match in and the script has been altered. It is no longer 11 v 11 with the combined brilliance of the manager and players overcoming the odds to pull off winning results.
“To compete in the Champions League you need hundreds of millions”
Giovanni van Bronckhorst believes it’s too much to ask for his Rangers side to compete with certain teams in the #UCL ?
? @Becky_Ives_ pic.twitter.com/bXR4huP0XC
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) September 7, 2022
Ajax were raided spectacularly during the summer, they lost seven first team players and their manager. They brought in £180m and spent £80m of that.
It look like the Dutch club are far better at recruitment than last night’s Champions League opponents.
Soon after that interview Napoli beat Liverpool 4-1, on Tuesday the Italians visit Ibrox on Matchday 2 of the Champions League. It is unlikely that bears that have paid £60 for a ticket will accept Surrender notes.
we beat teams worth hundreds of millions to get 2 a europa league final! The reason we cant compete all of a sudden is we sold decent players and havent come close to replacing them
— Craigy Gee (@craigygee55) September 7, 2022
Gio pal, that’s the wrong answer…
— ?? ??? ??? ?????? (@WATP72RFC) September 7, 2022
When these sorts of comments come out from the manager then he knows his time is nearly up ?????????
— Adam Medley (@Medds92) September 7, 2022
Zagreb beating Chelsea?
— Stuarty Mc (@stuchastosh) September 8, 2022
Yes it’s much harder, but Ajax, Lyon, Villarreal, and Atalanta have all made great runs to knockout, and good performances in QF/SF rounds in the past 3 UCL
— Hannah Louise ? (@HLouiseL) September 7, 2022
Villareal reached a the semi a few years ago, back in 2016 too? Several teams have made deep unexpected runs; it’s a knockout tournament.
— Carder Skudlo (@carderskudlo) September 7, 2022
Ajax made a profit of £100,000,000 in the summer transfer window https://t.co/hWx3sVLM7v
— Marc Duffy (@MarcSDuffy) September 7, 2022
I hope that’s sarcasm
— DougieBhoy ???????? (@DougieeBhoy) September 7, 2022
For every £1 that Rangers spend on wages, Ajax spend £1.06. https://t.co/bqselTJqa1 pic.twitter.com/CKlMgZ1brz
— Scottish Football Monitor (@ScoFootMon) September 7, 2022
The loyal bears could go on a marketing spree by selling pencils outside Ibrox on match days ! That would rake in plenty for GVB to spend on his club ! Or they could just go back to the good old days ,where tax ,and rules and regulations were ignored and broken and unpaid , without retribution by the governing bodies ! Watch this space !!
The Bhoys don’t have hundreds of millions but we competed very well with Real Madrid and we will improve with every game.