Why Rangers should have stuck by Gio van Bronckhorst as Antonio Colak addresses struggles
Antonio Colak insists Rangers should have showed more patience and stuck with Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
The Dutchman was the man who signed the striker for the Ibrox club and it all initially seemed to be a match made in heaven with the frontman netting 14 goals by November. But the team had begun to falter by then and fell nine points behind Celtic in the lead, resulting in van Bronckhorst's sacking.
Just months before, he had guided the team to a Europa League final and a Scottish Cup triumph so there was one school of thought that he should have had enough credit in the bank. Colak is one who thinks along those lines and says he also had faith his then boss could turn things around.
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The Croat, now at Spezia in Serie B, told the Daily Record: "Gio was a top coach. He brought me in and I had such a good relation with him. I paid back his trust with goals and he got results. He took the team to the Europa League Final, won the Scottish Cup, took us back to the Champions League.
"Then we had a period where we had a lot of injured players. If you want to survive in the Champions League, you need quality players. It was difficult to maintain the quality in the Champions League with so many players unavailable. At the end, you saw the results. Rangers are not used to losing games.
"Around the same time we lost some league games, then unfortunately the decision was made to remove Gio as coach. I still believe he could have turned back a lot of things with the team. But you know how the football business is nowadays. Everything goes really fast, there's not much patience."
Colak's own individual fortunes went on the slide about the same time and he didn't score too many goals for the rest of the season. GVB's replacement, Michael Beale, shipped him off to Parma the following summer.
Addressing his struggles, he explained: "Under Gio, I had the run of games and trust I needed - that's why I was able to score a lot of goals. But then I picked up one or two small injuries and that meant I couldn't have these continuous minutes. Things change really fast in football.
"As a player, you can only focus on your game. But when a coach knows how to use me, how to trust me, then he'll always get the maximum from me - this means goals. I look back with a really happy emotion to my time at Rangers. I still follow the team like crazy. I'll have Rangers always in my heart."
Prior to his move to Ibrox Colak had a loan spell with Malmo, ironically knocking Gers out of the Champions League with a deadly double. Ahead of the sides facing each other in the Europa League tomorrow, he's very much sitting on the fence.
He added: "You know my heart beats for both. I had really great memories with both teams. If I have to see it as a fan, then I'll hope for a draw and that both teams get a point."