Gio keeps Gers’ fizz in bottle
There will be no table for the Rangers players at tonight’s PFA Scotland awards dinner in Glasgow.
Not because the club want to protest the non-inclusion of Giovanni van Bronckhorst in the shortlist of candidates for Manager of the Year, even though he’s 90 minutes from taking his team to a European final.
No complaints about anything at all, in fact. More a statement of intent by way of non-attendance
Talking about the crowd at Ibrox getting Rangers over the line against RB Leipzig in the return leg of their Europa League semi-final makes for a good headline.
It flatters the fans and creates a productively combative mood.
But the manager knows the reality is his players need to be in the best physical condition to carry out their part of the bargain.
Ultimately, the crowd can’t score at one end and keep the ball out of the net at the other at Ibrox on Thursday night. That’s their job.
So even if Rangers wipe the floor with Celtic this afternoon it will be straight home and nothing stronger than a skinny latte before bed. What’s
supposedly written in the stars may be decoded as wishful thinking, even if some believe the message is so big it’s visible from the moon.
Van Bronckhorst has to favour fact over fate and that philosophy has done him no harm so far.
Rangers have quietly salted away millions from this European run.
If they win they become one of the top- eight seeds in next season’s Champions League draw and bank considerably more millions.
Public acclaim from a grateful country lifted up the coefficient table? Former Ibrox players declaring the team are “national heroes?”
Rangers make it clear they look after themselves, even if that involves an uneasy relationship with the press, the SPFL and their sponsor.
Thursday night is about the furtherance of the club’s growing reputation in Europe.
Every good story has to have a twist, which is why Angelino’s late goal for Leipzig can be seen as a plot developer and not the end of the story.
It’s Red Bull one Irn Bru nil at the moment. But the fizz is still in the bottle.