After whipping their elderly army of readers into a frenzy with a LIVE BLOG! on the future of Giovanni van Bronckhorst the Daily Record has been forced into another embarrassing climbdown.
Without the funds to pay off the Dutchman and with no sign that the present incumbent will walk away van Bronckhorst will be in charge against Hibs in just over three weeks. Apparently he is hoping that the club’s lengthy injury list will be cleared with a couple of weeks without any fresh crocks joining the treatment room.
What impact Kemar Roofe, John Souttar and Ridvan Yilmaz will have on the side is difficult to gauge while it is a bit of a stretch to expect Ianis Hagi and Filip Helander to make their first appearances of the season and instantly hit top form.
Breaking the bad news to their readers, the Record put their star reporters on the spot:
Will Gio van Bronckhorst still be in charge at Rangers when the World Cup is over?
KEITH: Yes. The accident prone Rangers board has fluffed its lines again. Van Bronckhorst will remain in charge until the Old Firm derby on January 2. Win it and he’ll soldier on. Lose it and they’ll finally be forced to act.
DAVID:Â Looks like it, doesn’t it? You’d have to think that if GVB was getting the boot, it would have happened by now to give the Board time to get a replacement before the ball starts rolling again.
MICHAEL: Unless a big name potential replacement pops up then it looks like he might be allowed to continue. It’s a gamble as van Bronckhorst will be living game to game the moment he gets back, and that’s no real way to operate.
ANDREW:Â It’s looking more and more like it, given you’d expect the Ibrox board would want to give his replacement as much time as possible to work with his new team. They better hope GVB can get a reaction when they return to action against Hibs, otherwise the backlash might just whip all the way up the marble staircase.
With van Bronckhorst’s contract running until May 2025 Robbie Neilson and David Martindale could have a long wait before fighting it out for their dream job.
Just print anything except the facts.
They are skint and can’t afford to pay him.
There cannot be a decent right thinking out of work manager out there who would even consider joining that basket case of a club.