As Aston Villa ran riot away to AZ Alkmaar on Thursday night, Pascal Jansen’s side would certainly have benefitted from showing even a shred of the resilience shown by Philippe Clement’s Rangers on their own European endeavours.
Rangers, pulled from pillar to post at times by an often-dominant Sparta Prague side during a punishing trip to Czech Republic, came away with a more-than credible point to their name, John Souttar, Ben Davies and particularly Jack Butland in a ‘thou shalt not pass’ sort of mood as the visitors kept their sheets a shade of Daz-washed white.
Rangers are yet to concede a goal since Clement’s appointment. The dogged determination on show in Prague far removed from the calamity of the late-Mick Beale era.
Jansen’s AZ Alkmaar, in contrast, were left licking their wounds on a night of very different emotions. Aston Villa sinking their teeth into Pascal Jansen’s backline and tearing their hosts limb from limb on a blood-soaked pitch.
Pascal Jansen defeated as Rangers claim big point
Villa were 1-0 up after just 13 minutes, and 4-0 up before the hour mark.
Now, maybe it’s slightly harsh to contrast and compare. An expensively-assembled Aston Villa outfit coached by a four-time European cup winner in Unai Emery are a world away from Sparta Prague, after all.
But, just 24 hours after breaking his silence on reports linking him with the Rangers job before Clement got the gig instead, the manner in which Jansen’s AZ were swatted aside may have only strengthened the belief that the man now sitting in the Ibrox dugout was the ‘outstanding’ candidate after all.
‘Rangers are a massive club’
“That Rangers talk caught me by surprise,” Jansen told Sky Sports earlier in the week. “It flatters me, of course. Rangers are a massive club and I have dreams and ambitions. But it does not make me do my job differently. I just keep working hard to make my players better than yesterday.
“I am very happy with this job at the moment, working at a fantastic club, working with elite players and helping to improve young players. Even though we are a smaller club than the other three and we have a far lower budget, we are still trying to achieve silverware.”
More displays like Thursday’s, however, and the only silverware Jansen will be getting his hands on will come out of his kitchen drawer.
