A lot of Rangers fans have offered the same defence of manager Danny Rohl for the best part of a month, but there are a number of problems with the particular defence that those fans are using. That defence is very simple. “Would you rather have Russell Martin back?” That is the simple case that the fans who are in favour of Rohl, which is currently the absolute majority, tend to use to defend him. Everything is compared with Danny Rohl’s predecessor.
A problem
Ibrox Noise has a big problem with this. Absolutely, Martin was completely the wrong choice, and Ibrox Noise called that out well before it was confirmed. We stuck by our guns the entire season, or year, to much abuse from those who demanded that we ‘back the manager.’ We refused. In the end, we were correct, and we did get a little bit of credit for that, but not a lot. Consequently, since Martin has been gone, the entire paradigm at Ibrox has shifted. No longer is Danny Rohl, or any other manager, ever going to be compared with any good predecessor. Only Martin, it seems. He will not be compared with Walter Smith, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Philippe Clement, or even Michael Beale. All of those guys did admirably in different ways. Some of them, of course, were outstanding.
Martin
The big anomaly is Russell Martin. He is literally the worst manager and the most inappropriate manager in Rangers’ history, and it has stained the support who seem to think he is the only manager in Rangers’ history. Every time anyone criticises an aspect of Danny Rohl’s performance, the immediate comeback is always ‘would you want Russell Martin back again‘? That is always the response now. It relates to Martin’s performance and Martin’s performance only, as if a rubbish manager is the only thing that Rohl can be compared with. Consequently, Rohl obviously looks a fair bit better than Martin did. But the idea of comparing Rohl with, say, Philippe Clement seems to be an alien concept.
Records and Comparisons
Clement’s record, along with Michael Beale’s record, in fact, was far better than Danny Rohl’s. That is to say, over the first 30 or so matches, Clement (W26, D2, L2) and Beale (W23, D2, L5) completely outshone Rangers’ current German manager (W17, D7, L6). But because Russell Martin’s record was so horrible, that is all that fans can see. When looking at Rohl’s performance, it is inferior to everyone who came before Russell Martin, but anyone was going to look good after Russell Martin, and the anomaly and paradox are complete. It has meant an artificial success level for Rohl, despite the fact that he is flubbing his lines in big matches and, crucially, still remains in second place, drifting further away from Hearts.
Out of His Depth?
Danny Rohl has already taken Rangers as far as he has the ability to do so. This is a barely scraped away from relegation in the Championship level manager who was not wanted by anyone after his time at Sheffield Wednesday. Consequently, Rangers fans who back him ignore just about every downside and every flaw in their argument defending him. As we say, it is all down to Russell Martin and what he did to Rangers that has gaslit the fan base so much that all they can see and compare with is him. There are no comparisons with anybody else. We have not once heard anyone say, would you rather go back to Philippe Clement? Because, of course, Clement is completely outshining Rohl in the Championship. Rohl’s performance at that level was way below what Clement’s at that same level is with Norwich.
The Toxic Benchmark
The point is that while Rohl is a reasonable enough guy, we do not think he is a bad guy, but he is totally out of his depth at Rangers. Many managers have been. Has he done better than some? Yes. Has he done inferior to many? Definitely. But the problem is all fans can see is Martin and the toxic four months that he was in charge. Consequently, you are not going to change anyone’s mind that Rohl is the wrong manager. He may be the wrong manager, as Ibrox Noise attests, but fans cannot see it.
