{"id":584658,"date":"2025-11-21T12:09:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T12:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/584658\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T12:09:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T12:09:23","slug":"celtic-dont-even-have-a-permanent-manager-so-danny-rohl-must-paint-rangers-target-on-rivals-barry-ferguson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/584658\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtic don’t even have a permanent manager so Danny Rohl must paint Rangers target on rivals \u2013 Barry Ferguson"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Record Sport columnist reckons that his former club can crank up the pressure on their rivals and leaders Hearts(Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n

Let’s start by stating the obvious.<\/p>\n

The whole country owes Steve Clarke <\/a>and his players a massive thank-you after they clinched qualification for the next World Cup and sure the way they did it, with that 4-2 win over Denmark, might just go down as the most single most dramatic and enjoyable game of football I\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re talking about making him Sir Steve now that he\u2019s got us to three out of the last four major tournaments and who can blame them?<\/p>\n

As I said myself the other night on the Daily Record\u2019s Hotline Live<\/strong><\/a>, I\u2019d back the idea of rewarding him with a knighthood because what he has done for the reputation of Scottish football over the last six and a half years has been out of this world.<\/p>\n

He gets a hard time from supporters now and again and I\u2019ve never really worked that one out. What more does the man have to do before we all realise just how lucky we are to have in charge?<\/p>\n

But, anyway, that\u2019s another argument for another day. Because, as much as I loved the outcome of this latest international break, I\u2019m counting down the clock already to the return of the nitty gritty in the Premiership title race.<\/p>\n

And, yes, before anyone starts having a pop, it really is a title race and Rangers<\/a> really are still in the thick of it.<\/p>\n

The truth is, new boss Danny Rohl was just building up a nice wee head of steam before everything stopped for Scotland.<\/p>\n

The 3-0 win at Dens Park means he has chalked up three league wins in a row. That might not sound like much of a big deal but given how inconsistent the side has been this season I\u2019ll take it as a solid sign of improvement.<\/p>\n

Now he has to follow it up with another win at Livingston because Rangers need to string a number of consecutive victories together if they want to chip away at the gap between themselves and Celtic and Hearts.<\/p>\n

(Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n

But it can be done. And no one will convince me otherwise.<\/p>\n

It\u2019ll be difficult, yes. But it\u2019s doable all right. Put it this way, never in my life have I seen a league title won or conceded before the end of November.<\/p>\n

People will reach their own conclusions and have their own opinions. And a lot of them will have written Rangers off already.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s fine. But the last time I checked there\u2019s only five points between Rangers and Celtic<\/a> and right now they haven\u2019t even got a permanent manager in charge. So why shouldn\u2019t Rohl and his players paint a target on their backs?<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the first aim. Try to claw back those points by rattling off some results and then, if they can do that, then take a look and see how Hearts are getting on at the top.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no getting away from it, Derek McInnes and his players have been the best side in the country so far this season. The table doesn\u2019t lie.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s what comes next that really matters most of all and I\u2019m sure Danny will be hoping to eat away at that lead between now and the turn of the year.<\/p>\n

Then, if they can bring in some more reinforcements in January, we\u2019re all set for a real scrap over the second half of the season.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure what the cash situation is going to be like so I don\u2019t know if the new manager will be heavily backed or if the club will have to do some wheeling and dealing if they want to bring in new faces.<\/p>\n

But there is one thing that Rangers certainly can\u2019t afford to do and that\u2019s consider selling Nico Raskin to raise a bit of spending money.<\/p>\n

If they are serious about mourning a challenge for the two remaining domestic trophies then you can\u2019t do it by losing one of your most important players and that\u2019s exactly what Nico is.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure the manager will have been assessing what he\u2019s got and who he might be able to move on.<\/p>\n

But Nico won\u2019t be on that list. His contract situation is not ideal because he\u2019s into the last 18 months<\/a>. That means there could be a temptation to look for offers.<\/p>\n

But, because of that, they\u2019d have to settle for a lot less than he\u2019s worth if they let him go in January. And that would seem like a false economy, when there\u2019s so much still to play for this season including a possible place in next season\u2019s Champions League.<\/p>\n

Nico Raskin celebrates<\/p>\n

It would make more sense to keep him, let him go and play at the World Cup with Belgium and then go to the market. If he stars on the biggest stage of all and attracts a lot of interest then Rangers might end up getting even more money for him as well as an extra six months on the pitch.<\/p>\n

Selling him now would send out all the wrong messages. If you want to compete you need your best players on the pitch and, having worked with the young man, I know how important he can be.<\/p>\n

If you asked Nico he\u2019d probably admit he\u2019s not been up to his own high standards so far this season but he was showing signs of getting there over the last two or three games.<\/p>\n

He could have a massive part to play from here on in so there is no argument at all that makes me think letting him leave at this stage would be the right thing to do.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s not forget Nico will be desperate to get back to his very best between now and the end of the season as he\u2019ll want to go to the World Cup with all guns blazing.<\/p>\n

And when Nico is at the top of his game he\u2019s already proved that he has a big influence on the team.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the kind of quality that Rangers will have to rely on if they are to turn this season on its head from this point onwards.<\/p>\n

And anybody who thinks it simply can\u2019t happen could be in for quite a surprise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Record Sport columnist reckons that his former club can crank up the pressure on their rivals and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":584659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[1634,2628,1614,76431,71562,94,79673,1946,1638,79,70571,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-584658","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-barry-ferguson","9":"tag-celtic-fc","10":"tag-champions-league","11":"tag-danny-rohl","12":"tag-derek-mcinnes","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-martin-oneill","15":"tag-rangers-fc","16":"tag-scottish-premiership","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-steve-clarke","19":"tag-uk","20":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115587618164409746","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=584658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/584658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/584659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=584658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=584658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=584658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}