AN OLD FACE WITH NEW IDEAS
Gio set to call Gerrard for rundown on the squad he has taken over at Ibrox Dutchman talks up the importance of captain Tavernier in future plans
TWENTY-THREE years after he first stepped into The Blue Room amid a blizzard of camera flashes, Giovanni van Bronckhorst was back. The club suit and tie had changed. So had its occupant. Van Bronckhorst still looks like he could match men half his age on the training pitch, but a first media conference as Rangers manager was not tinged by much nostalgia for those ‘beautiful’ playing days. The demands of the present are too intense.
He struck an assured tone when laying out some of his thoughts for the future. Quietly dropping in adjectives such as ‘strict’ and ‘tough’ also made it clear there will be sizeable demands placed upon his newly inherited squad. In those moments, it was almost possible to hear a little echo of Dick Advocaat, who sat by his side in 1998 after a £5million transfer from Feyenoord.
It is, however, a much more recent Rangers manager who is high in Van Bronckhorst’s thoughts. A call will be made to Steven Gerrard.
‘He sent me a message by email which was really nice,’ said Van Bronckhorst. ‘I think we will definitely be in contact in the coming weeks to talk about stuff.
‘He did a really great job at Rangers and has now moved to the Premier League with Aston Villa. I personally wish him all the best and I’m sure there will be some contact in the next few weeks.’
You can see why Van Bronckhorst would want to mine as much information as he can from his predecessor. About individual players and more. There’s an argument to say Gerrard has left him something of a mixed bag.
A four-point lead at the top of the Premiership and a fair chance of progression in the Europa League are unmistakable positives. Meeting the entire squad for the first time this morning, Van Bronckhorst is planning two days of intense preparations for Thursday evening’s high-stakes visit of Sparta Prague.
The negatives were scrawled in bold typeface all over Sunday’s 3-1 defeat by Hibs in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final. Watching from the Hampden stands as a work permit awaited completion, Van Bronckhorst must have been aghast at a collective performance that mixed disintegrating defending with a non-functioning attack.
All the little issues that lurked throughout the start of Gerrard’s fourth season in charge came to a head in the first 90 minutes after his departure. Connor Goldson then set further alarm bells ringing by suggesting the squad had lost some of its ‘hunger’.
‘It’s a great squad. They won the league last year,’ stressed Van Bronckhorst. ‘In the second year, to be champions is more difficult.
‘But we are still in a good place. Of course we are not happy with the result yesterday. We can see some things I want to change and we have to be better at.
‘But my first meeting with the players will be tomorrow. It’s better to tell them first and look them in their eyes, to make sure that, from tomorrow on, we do everything to be successful with this club.’
He has already spoken with captain James Tavernier (below), who looks likely to continue in that role under the new regime.
‘We had a meeting today,’ added Van Bronckhorst. ‘He is the captain and an important member of the squad, so the relationship between captain and coach has to always be a good one, but also with the squad.
‘He is very influential as a captain and in the way Rangers play, so it was a good meeting. I saw some other players who were at the training ground but I will meet with everyone tomorrow.’
Contract and transfer decisions lie ahead and the squad Gerrard built could be facing a significant overhaul next summer. With a testing run of fixtures towards the winter break, Van Bronckhorst will not be able to ease himself in.
‘Of course I know the club because I played for it, but it has been a while since I have been here,’ he said.
‘The most important thing for me is my feeling, I am always a coach who will make decisions on how I feel. That is the one thing I always find the best and I will do it also with the decisions I have to make in the coming weeks.
‘We don’t have a pre-season, where you have maybe six weeks or more to work with the players.
‘My point of beginning is not ideal but the club did well to react in the last week and get a new manager and backroom staff.
‘For the players also, it is something they don’t want to have in the middle of the season but it’s just the way it is.
‘It starts from working. Of course, if you work hard and you have the quality, it will make it easier to win games. I am a coach who is very strict. I like discipline.
‘I think it is very important for the way that you behave and the way you play on the pitch. But also I like an attacking style of football because this has been my way of playing when I was a player.’
He was unquestionably a winner as a player. The Champions League. League titles in Scotland, England and Spain. A place in the World Cup final.
Guiding Feyenoord to their first Eredivisie crown in 18 years showed a continuing fondness for delivering under pressure. In Glasgow, that comes down to finishing ahead of Celtic.
‘The Old Firm is one of the biggest games in football — the same as Feyenoord v Ajax or Barcelona v Real Madrid,’ enthused Van Bronckhorst. ‘I really enjoyed those games. Being the manager in those games will be the same.
‘I enjoyed the Feyenoord v Ajax games as the manager of Feyenoord and I’ll be looking forward to the Old Firm games as well because those are special games and ones you want to win.’
Rangers fans sported Dutch flags, Oranje shirts and banners to greet Van Bronckhorst at Hampden on Sunday.
‘It’s a good feeling when you are in a place where you are loved,’ he smiled. ‘The welcome was amazing. I can imagine on Thursday it will be even more. It means I made the right decision and I really feel at home.
‘It’s a big responsibility but I’m not afraid of responsibility. I’m used to the pressure, so, in that way, it’s not different. I’m a very positive person, so I will do everything to make sure we are going the right way and to be successful.
‘I don’t think you can perform without pressure as it will make you sharp and get you going.’