Graham Souness piles misery on Gio

The ex-Gers boss says the Dutchman’s days are numbered after the Saints blow and European nightmare.

Former Rangers manager Graeme Souness has said it will be difficult for under-pressure Ibrox boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst to recover following Sunday’s loss at St Johnstone and a ‘miserable’ European campaign.

Gers slipped seven points adrift of cinch Premiership leaders Celtic at the weekend as a 2-1 reverse in Perth heightened the pressure on the Dutchman.

Six months after leading Rangers to the Europa League final, and less than a year into his reign, van Bronckhorst now faces a critical week. Rangers host Hearts on Wednesday before a trip to St Mirren on Saturday.

Any worsening of their situation in the title race would leave van Bronckhorst vulnerable, particularly ahead of a five-week interval which would offer the chance to bed in a new boss.

Souness said on talkSPORT: ‘Miserable European campaign, losing to Celtic, it’ll be difficult for him to recover. He’s got to beat Celtic twice and they have to slip up.

‘Managing Glasgow Rangers isn’t an easy job, as I’m sure managing Celtic isn’t. There’s games you’re expected to win simply because, certainly in my day, I could bring in one player who is worth more money than the whole 11 players we were playing against. That in itself brought its own pressure.

‘Rangers are expected to win every game and that’s the price on the ticket when you manage that enormous football club. And he is under pressure.’

Fellow former Ibrox boss Ally McCoist feels Rangers are paying the price for failing to adequately replace some of their summer departures.

Antonio Colak has impressed up front but the only other two summer signings who started in Perth, Ben Davies and Malik Tillman, were taken off with Gers 2-0 down.

McCoist said: ‘We’ve lost players that were capable of getting a team to a Europa League final and not replaced them with anything like the same quality or the same physicality. We lost (Calvin) Bassey to Ajax, (Joe) Aribo’s away to Southampton, (Nathan) Patterson away to Everton. These were all excellent players and also had a physicality about them. But they’ve not been replaced.’

McCoist fears Celtic will only get stronger as the season goes on.

He said: ‘There is a worry that the gap Celtic have is only going to get bigger.’

Rangers confirmed yesterday that this year’s AGM will take place on December 6.

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