Unconvincing Ibrox leadership team had no reason to be reactive but have ended up placing their new coach in an invidious position
N
o football club paralysed by fear over the impact of decision-making can progress. Rangers’ leadership team are permanently scared; of getting it wrong, of antagonising supporters, of their own shadows. So little of what emerges from Ibrox feels decisive.
Had Rangers believed more than a fortnight ago that Danny Röhl was the man to remove them from on-field doldrums, they should displayed the courage of their convictions. Röhl could have been in situ within 24 hours of Russell Martin’s departure. Rangers have been longtime admirers of the 36-year-old German, who was available, and could have sold his arrival as something that should have happened when they instead turned to Martin after a recruitment drive that rumbled on for months. Röhl is a highly rated coach who has a solid enough reputation to be spared ridicule. Comparisons to Martin are unfair.
Rangers had no reason to be reactive as opposed to proactive, given Martin’s fate was realistically sealed long before his sacking. The former Southampton manager would never recover from a 6-0 trouncing in Bruges in late August. Martin’s was an utterly shambolic Rangers team.
