Gio reels out new Celtic excuse as he ‘celebrates’ a year of failure with Sky Sports

Giovanni van Bronckhorst is still blaming last season’s rescheduled winter break for his side’s collapse in the SPFL title race.

It seems that 15 wins, including two in Glasgow derbies, from Ange Postecoglou’s squad plus three draws has been conveniently forgotten by the Dutchman as he reviewed his year in charge at Ibrox with Sky Sports.

Across social media Ibrox fans are dismayed that van Bronckhorst has reached 365 days in charge of their club but in time honoured fashion all of the club’s failings are down to factors outside the control of the manager.

In late December, with three rounds of fixtures to be played before the planned winter break, the Scottish Government announced that crowds of only 500 would be allowed to attend sports events.

With their Behind-Closed-Doors triumph fresh in the memory the Ibrox club were all in for that option but the other 11 Premiership clubs voted to bring forward the winter break.

The Premiership season halted on December 26, resumed on January 17 with the Ibrox club collapsing with points dropped in quick succession as Aberdeen, Ross County and Celtic fans celebrated the Dutch genius being found out.

Presenting an alternative view, Sky Sports reports:

QUESTION: The first slip was against Aberdeen – what were your thoughts at that point?

We were due to play Aberdeen and Celtic in the last games before the winter break, then they rescheduled the break and we had to play later. At that moment we were playing our best football and we wanted to play on. There were only one or two clubs who wanted to continue because of the way Covid was at the time we couldn’t have the stadiums full. That wasn’t our decision but, still, we returned with a draw at Aberdeen and a bad result against Celtic.

QUESTION: How difficult was that defeat at Celtic Park?

It was very difficult because it was a big loss for us. Also, the way we lost. It was a game that we didn’t play well at all, we started really nervous and it cost us early goals and it will always be difficult to recover from that.

Last season’s rescheduled break is certain to be added to the excuses wheeled out at the Ibrox AGM on December 6.

? Rangers appointed Giovanni van Bronckhorst on this day in 2021.

In an ????????? interview, he sat down with us before the World Cup break to reflect on his first year as Rangers manager ??

— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) November 18, 2022