{"id":605576,"date":"2025-12-01T16:13:29","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T16:13:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/605576\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T16:13:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T16:13:29","slug":"danny-rohl-is-rangers-crash-test-dummy-and-it-feels-like-hes-dressed-up-in-emperors-new-clothes-keith-jackson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/605576\/","title":{"rendered":"Danny Rohl is Rangers crash test dummy and it feels like he’s dressed up in emperor\u2019s new clothes \u2013 Keith Jackson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our man has his say on the new Ibrox boss with questions being asked just nine games into his Ibrox reign<\/p>\n

13:11, 01 Dec 2025Updated 15:02, 01 Dec 2025<\/p>\n

Content cannot be displayed without consent<\/p>\n

There are very many reasons to feel genuine sympathy for Danny Rohl<\/a> and perhaps to want to cut the German some slack.<\/p>\n

For a start, he\u2019s been shoehorned into a position which many older, wiser and vastly more experienced operators would find almost impossible to deal with. At the age of 36, and with only one full season in management behind him, Rohl was at least brave enough to accept and take on the challenge of confronting the utter chaos left behind by Russell Martin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And he was willing to do so at a place and time when sporting director Kevin Thelwell <\/a>and chief executive Patrick Stewart were still manning the Rangers command centre and calling the shots. He willingly went to work for them and took on a squad which had been downgraded by the pair of these error prone executives to such an extent that it may well be the least talented, least capable group of individuals seen masquerading as Rangers players in the top flight since the early 1980s.<\/p>\n

And he did so full in the knowledge that the demands and expectations of the fans around Ibrox remained undiminished. As a matter of fact, the weekly protests against Martin, Thelwell and Stewart were so ferocious in nature and so very publicly visible, that Rohl must have known he was speeding straight into a car crash.<\/p>\n

And yet, even so, he was absolutely prepared to strap himself into the driver\u2019s seat and take his chances, even though the likes of Steven Gerrard<\/a> and Kevin Muscat had taken one look at the smoking carnage down the road and immediately thought better of it. So, in many ways, Rohl is to be admired if only for his sheer chutzpah and undented self belief.<\/p>\n

But, along with all of the above, there was also a nagging suspicion that he was simply delighted to be offered such an opportunity and happy to take it on under any circumstances or conditions. And that there was little or nothing about his managerial CV which warranted his inclusion in the discussion in the first place.<\/p>\n

At no previous point in this club\u2019s history, after all, has a 12th placed finish in the second tier of English football been viewed as the validation of the credentials of a prospective incoming new boss. On the contrary, in more normal times, the very idea would have started the alarm bells clattering all the way up Paisley Road West.<\/p>\n

But Rohl did have one huge advantage on his side, where winning over the locals was concerned. His name wasn\u2019t Russell Martin. And so he took on the challenge of fixing Martin\u2019s mess and becoming Thelwell and Stewart\u2019s crash test dummy.<\/p>\n

\"RangersRangers Head Coach Danny Rohl(Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n

If that meant agreeing to dance to their tune in the process, then sobeit. If it included being grateful to accept the next raft of Thelwell\u2019s signings and welcome them into Auchenhowie, then sure, why not? What\u2019s the worst that could happen?<\/p>\n

But, just nine games into his tenure, Rohl might be beginning to feel the earth shifting under his feet and not only because the very men who appointed him have subsequently been rumbled by the American owners and dismissed for their lack of good judgement.<\/p>\n

No, it\u2019s because the same fans who wished him well in the first place may be starting to wonder if Rohl is just another one of their many missteps. Having been smart enough to score some early PR points by slipping into the brown brogues and club tie that Martin left in the office cupboard, it\u2019s starting to feel like Rohl might really be dressed up in the emperor\u2019s new clothes.<\/p>\n

Nothing much has changed in terms of the performance level of his team. If anything, they are becoming an even harder watch than before. Yes, he clocked up four straight league wins before dropping another two points at home to Falkirk on Sunday. And that run helped to stabilise matters in the short term at least.<\/p>\n

But those victories against Kilmarnock, Hibs, Dundee and Livingston were sandwiched in between defeats against Brann in the Europa League, a Premier Sports Cup semi final loss to Celtic, a roughing up from Roma and wholly unsatisfactory draw at home to ten man Braga.<\/p>\n

All of which has combined to render Rangers as European no hopers as well as mere also-rans in the first domestic cup competition of the season. So when Falkirk left Ibrox at the weekend, kicking themselves for not taking all three points and claiming a first league victory there in 100 years, was the paper beginning to slip off of the cracks?<\/p>\n

Yes, Rohl can point to a number of mitigating factors, not least the paucity of the players he has inherited and the injuries which have denied him the services of first choice defenders John Souttar and Derek Cornelius. And it remains to be seen what urgent remedial work can be carried in the January transfer window when he ought to have a chance to address some of the biggest issues – assuming, of course, that Thelwell Jr isn\u2019t making those choices for him now that his old man has been sent packing.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t alter the fact that Rohl is struggling to meet the first three basic demands of his own job – to organise, motivate and improve. Rangers don\u2019t look any more organised on the pitch than they were under the previous management and Rohl\u2019s continued reliance on players who consistently fail to perform is frankly becoming baffling.<\/p>\n

Those same players do not seem motivated to be anything more than mediocre and a great deal of them remain content to merely go through the motions.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Rangers players after defeat to Roma(Image: SNS Group)<\/p>\n

And there has been no sign of improvement especially in the final third, where Rangers are neither creating regular goal scoring chances nor taking the majority of the very few that they do muster up.<\/p>\n

They are about to embark on a series of road trips over the next 10 days<\/a> which will take them to Dundee United, Kilmarnock and Ferencvaros. If Rohl can\u2019t get them organised, motivated and greatly improved for all three of these matches then he may find the mood music waiting for him back at Ibrox when Hibs pay a pre-Christmas visit on December 15, has taken a significant turn for the worse.<\/p>\n

Goodwill to all men? It doesn\u2019t exist in this part of the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Our man has his say on the new Ibrox boss with questions being asked just nine games into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[76431,1811,172785,94,21843,70133,24579,1946,1638,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-605576","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-danny-rohl","9":"tag-europa-league","10":"tag-falkirk-fc","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-hibernian-fc","13":"tag-kevin-thelwell","14":"tag-patrick-stewart","15":"tag-rangers-fc","16":"tag-scottish-premiership","17":"tag-sports","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115645200136217133","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605576","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=605576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}