Giovanni van Bronckhorst has emerged as the favourite to be appointed the new Rangers manager after Steven Gerrard left for Aston Villa.
The Dutchman is no stranger to the Rangers supporters, having starred for the Ibrox side between 1998 and 2001 before going on to establish himself as one of Europe’s finest left-backs.
Having won league titles at Arsenal and Barcelona, as well as the Champions League with the latter, he finished his career with Feyenoord.
After retiring as a player, he took over as manager at Feyenoord and led them to domestic cup success in his first full season.
Even better was to come, van Bronckhorst broke through the duopoly of Ajax and PSV, winning Feyenoord’s first league title in 18 years in 2017.
He left to join the Chinese Super League side Guangzhou R&F in 2020 but left the side before the end of the year to return home to his family.
The former Rangers man has all the credentials to succeed Steven Gerrard as Rangers manager. Winning Feyenoord’s first title in 18 years was no mean feat, especially considering the differences in budget between them and Ajax.
He is familiar with the 4-3-3 formation that Gerrard used extensively and his managerial stats at the Dutch club make some interesting reading.
With an average of 1.99 points per game and a near 62% win record in charge of Feyenoord, the stats are encouraging.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst looks like he could be the ideal candidate for the job. We all know that bookmakers’ odds can sometimes be taken with a pinch of salt and nothing is guaranteed.
Let’s hope we can get the deal done sooner rather than later.
Meanwhile, have a look at another potential candidate for the Rangers job.
