GIO: THEY ARE MY PLAYERS
Boss hits back at squad claims as he marks a year in Ibrox hotseat
there has not been much to cheer about this term with Gers nine points adrift of leaders Celtic having been humiliated in the Champions League.
With casualties mounting up, van Bronckhorst had been forced to increasingly turn to the stalwarts who served the club under his predecessor.
But the Ibrox boss refused to make excuses and said: “Every player in this squad is my player.
“It doesn’t mean I have to get new players then it becomes my team. I don’t think that is my job or the job of any manager.
“Whenever you take a job – and that is what I did last year – and from the moment I stepped in the door these are my players.
“I work with my players. Sometimes you have changes in our squad because you have players out of contract, we sell them or maybe we need to refresh the squad.
“That’s the moment you have in every window that is coming and for me it is the same.
“Every player in the squad is my player. I don’t like it when you say this isn’t my squad – this is my squad.”
But van Bronckhorst admits he is counting down the days to January when he and sporting director Ross Wilson can make moves to strengthen a squad that was missing 10 first-team figures for the recent Champions League showdown with Ajax.
The Dutchman said: “I speak almost every day with Ross. We need to see how the squad is when the window comes closer because we miss a lot of players at the moment.
“Every time in every window you need to come out of the window stronger than when you started the window. This window is the same and then we can see and discuss what is possible and what we can do.
“On February 1 you always want a better squad than being in a position where you lose players and can’t replace them.”
It has been 12 months of contrasting fortunes or the former Ibrox midfielder on his return to Glasgow.
While there were the highs of last season’s remarkable run to the Europa League Final and the club’s first Scottish Cup triumph in 23 years, it’s been balanced off against their Premiership struggles, with Celtic looking certs to defend last year’s title.
But GVB reckons his side’s league fortunes could have been all so different had the SPFL not opted to bring forward last year’s winter break in the face of mounting Covid cases at a time when the Ibrox side were hitting their stride.
Hitting out at the SPFL’s controversial call he said: “We had to play Aberdeen and Celtic in the last games before the break.
“They rescheduled the break and then we had to play later. I think at that moment we were playing our best football and wanted to play on.
“There were only one or two clubs who wanted to continue because I think Covid was at the time and we couldn’t have the stadiums filled.
“That wasn’t our decision and we just had to keep on going. We had a draw against Aberdeen and a defeat against Celtic, which was very difficult because it was a big loss for us and the way we lost.
“It was a game where we didn’t play well at all. We started really nervous and it cost us the goals and it is always difficult to recover from that.”
GIO VAN BRONCKHORST insists he has no problem working with Steven Gerrard’s Ibrox hand-me-downs.
But the beleaguered Rangers boss confesses he’s desperate to put his own stamp on the Light Blues in January as he eyes up much-needed reinforcements for his injury-hit squad
The Dutchman yesterday celebrated his first anniversary in the Ibrox hotseat. But