Gio wanted Maatsen

WLF said:
When you look back at it, it’s unreal the backing Beale received in comparison to Gio. And how chuffed fans were at Beale being the one to take his job.
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I was as desperate as anyone for Gio to be let go, I think domestically he was an awful manager (his tactics and subs were perplexing, never mind his Old Firm showings). Equally, I always had a feeling Beale would be a disaster because for all the talk of him being 'the brains behind Gerrard', those brains saw us struggle with the same shite almost every season.

People on here have very short memories, Gio might not have got the Beale budget but he still got to spend the guts of £15m did he not? I wouldn't class him as unlucky at all.
 
Lovenkrands Dug said:
I was as desperate as anyone for Gio to be let go, I think domestically he was an awful manager (his tactics and subs were perplexing, never mind his Old Firm showings). Equally, I always had a feeling Beale would be a disaster because for all the talk of him being 'the brains behind Gerrard', those brains saw us struggle with the same shite almost every season.

People on here have very short memories, Gio might not have got the Beale budget but he still got to spend the guts of £15m did he not? I wouldn't class him as unlucky at all.
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Yeah we spent a fair chunk of dough in summer 2022, but plenty on this thread are refusing to acknowledge that to spin a certain narrative that Gio wasn't backed.

Both the past two summer windows have seen millions pissed up against a wall which is why Clement inherited a bin fire in October.
 
It's all in the past now but we have to hope lessons have been learned. We now have a manager worth backing again regardless of the seasons outcome. We need to do it and improve recruitment significantly. We need to be bold and move some people on who have been here a long time.
 
Things weren't working out when Gio got the sack and at the time it was needed. But I think I'll always have a case of 'What if?' when it comes to Gio. If he'd been backed, what could he have achieved? He clearly has something about him as a manager. You don't get Rangers to the Europa League final if you don't.
 
See the next time GVB drops a hard-luck story about managing us while doing his punditry, can we scrutinise what we are saying please?

He did not get more than Beale, they both got the same amount to spend

Secondly, are we to believe he had absolutely *nothing* to do with a single one of the signings we made that summer?
 
Candyass said:
We didn't have anything to give Gerrard after winning the league.

He spent it the year before.
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No club worth their salt can get by doing %^*& all in a modern day transfer market window.

The summer 2021 window was an abject disgrace where we failed to do anything of note from a position of strength. Those repercussions are still being felt
 
SuperGers07 said:
No club worth their salt can get by doing %^*& all in a modern day transfer market window.

The summer 2021 window was an abject disgrace where we failed to do anything of note from a position of strength. Those repercussions are still being felt
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Our failure to improve and refresh the squad that summer, coupled with the defeat to Malmo is why Postecogleu is managing Spurs right now and why we're staring down the barrel or three in a row for them. A proper sliding doors moment.
 
BlueArmada said:
Our failure to improve and refresh the squad that summer, coupled with the defeat to Malmo is why Postecogleu is managing Spurs right now and why we're staring down the barrel or three in a row for them. A proper sliding doors moment.
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Absolutely. A total what if moment. Typical Rangers really of the last while
 
Candyass said:
See the next time GVB drops a hard-luck story about managing us while doing his punditry, can we scrutinise what we are saying please?

He did not get more than Beale, they both got the same amount to spend

Secondly, are we to believe he had absolutely *nothing* to do with a single one of the signings we made that summer?
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The difference is during Gio's time here we sold Paterson, Bassey and Aribo for around £35m. He got us to a European final and qualified for the champions league and we never signed any of his first choices.
 
Novichok said:
Gio's tactics for the domestic stuff were terrible and he refused to change them. That imv is why he lost the players and ultimately his job.

Passing the ball about the horseshoe hoping to draw teams out of their shape doesn't work for us. As we found out, Scottish opposition quite happy to sit in their shape and play for a point.
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Yep, some amount of revisionism on here.

Gio had a worse away record than Motherwell not long before he was sacked. He couldn't get to grips with Scottish football and was too stubborn to change his tactics when they clearly werent working. His away record in general is piss poor across all clubs he managed and in all competitions except for Dortmund. The record was less than 50% before he was sacked and he had spells at Feyenoord where they went long runs without an away win.

He done really well in Europe until we collapsed in the Champions league beating all sorts of records you don't want to beat. His decision to take off a player that takes penalties for his country to put on a crock who shouldn't have been anywhere near the pitch never mind a penalty was a disgrace. Smacked of trying to be clever and in the end made him look stupid.

Some people like to give Gio every bit of credit for the good parts but blame the players and Ross Wilson for the bad parts. There is a reason he was managing and failed in China and is still sitting unemployed.
 
SuperGers07 said:
No club worth their salt can get by doing %^*& all in a modern day transfer market window.

The summer 2021 window was an abject disgrace where we failed to do anything of note from a position of strength. Those repercussions are still being felt
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It shouldn't need explained to people why we had such a small transfer budget that summer considering the loss reported post Covid.

'Aye, disgrace we never spent pure heavy mullions n that'

That's not how reality works I'm afraid.
 
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MartinS93 said:
That these players have bottled it in the past?
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It's a combination of things, to say it's down to any one particular thing, or to say that players bottled it is too simplistic. Diomande being injured and missing the Ross County and Dundee was a contributory factor, as was the manager's team selection in light of that. Ultimately pressure will play a part, but the quality in certain areas, particularly when a player gets injured, evidently, hasn't been there. Since Diomande has returned, and playing alongside Lundstram things are better, but we still lack the necessary quality up front, and our defence maybe lacks the the quality we need it to be as well.
 
JMCK said:
It's a combination of things, to say it's down to any one particular thing, or to say that players bottled it is too simplistic. Diomande being injured and missing the Ross County and Dundee was a contributory factor, as was the manager's team selection in light of that. Ultimately pressure will play a part, but the quality in certain areas, particularly when a player gets injured, evidently, hasn't been there. Since Diomande has returned, and playing alongside Lundstram things are better, but we still lack the necessary quality up front, and our defence maybe lacks the the quality we need it to be as well.
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We shouldn't need Diomande to beat Ross County and Dundee. A chance to go 2 points clear means the players selected should have been good enough to go and beat those 2.
 
IsaacClarke said:
We shouldn't need Diomande to beat Ross County and Dundee. A chance to go 2 points clear means the players selected should have been good enough to go and beat those 2.
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Dowell and Lawrence are not deep midfielders.
 
JMCK said:
It's a combination of things, to say it's down to any one particular thing, or to say that players bottled it is too simplistic. Diomande being injured and missing the Ross County and Dundee was a contributory factor, as was the manager's team selection in light of that. Ultimately pressure will play a part, but the quality in certain areas, particularly when a player gets injured, evidently, hasn't been there. Since Diomande has returned, and playing alongside Lundstram things are better, but we still lack the necessary quality up front, and our defence maybe lacks the the quality we need it to be as well.
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So they never chucked it under Beale at the start of this season or bottle it under pressure because they couldn't cope against Dundee/Ross County without Diomande?

Mate, you're talking complete rubbish..
 
What baffles me is van Bronckhorst sets up a team tactically perfect in EL games and in the semi final at Hampden against Celtic, Bassey man for man on Rogic was genius and brave.
Yet when he took us to Celtic park we may as well have bent over.
He couldn’t set us up to beat dross either.

Let’s also not pretend he didn’t get backed. Did he get his first choice targets? Probably not, but not many managers will.
He cost himself his job.
I was clear at the time of his appointment that I didn’t like him and didn’t want him back, so I’m not going to blow smoke up his arse now he is away either. He done tremendously in EL and CL qualifiers, one cup aside he was terrible domestically.
 
Macky said:
Yep, some amount of revisionism on here.

Gio had a worse away record than Motherwell not long before he was sacked. He couldn't get to grips with Scottish football and was too stubborn to change his tactics when they clearly werent working. His away record in general is piss poor across all clubs he managed and in all competitions except for Dortmund. The record was less than 50% before he was sacked and he had spells at Feyenoord where they went long runs without an away win.

He done really well in Europe until we collapsed in the Champions league beating all sorts of records you don't want to beat. His decision to take off a player that takes penalties for his country to put on a crock who shouldn't have been anywhere near the pitch never mind a penalty was a disgrace. Smacked of trying to be clever and in the end made him look stupid.

Some people like to give Gio every bit of credit for the good parts but blame the players and Ross Wilson for the bad parts. There is a reason he was managing and failed in China and is still sitting unemployed.
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Sakala was murder in Seville. The amount of times he made bad decisions and his team mates were losing the plot with him was ridiculous. We were a man down with him on.

Gio can be criticised for a lot of things. Hauling him off wasn't one of them. Absolutely no guarantee Sakala scores either. More likely he'd have ballooned it high and wide given how utterly shite he was when he was on.
 
IsaacClarke said:
So? The 11 picked in both games should have more than good enough to win those games.

As Sterling admitted afterwards the attitude and belief was all wrong, not the personnel .
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So, the selection in midfield for those games was okay then?
 
MartinS93 said:
So they never chucked it under Beale at the start of this season or bottle it under pressure because they couldn't cope against Dundee/Ross County without Diomande?

Mate, you're talking complete rubbish..
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You're saying they "chucked it", and I'm the one talking nonsense? Are you saying the match at Hampden against Hearts, for instance, was a game where Lundstram and Diomande played no significant part?
 
RossS1872 said:
Let's not rewrite history that Gio shouldn't have been sacked when he did. But it's clear that he did not nearly get backed as much as he wanted when you look at Beale getting (in his own words) his "number one striker" and going out to Italy to get Dessers. He wanted Cifuentes to take us to "the next level". He was given a top goalkeeper in Butland. He was backed with what he wanted, Gio wasn't and was far more deserving of it.
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The three and four nothing pastings at parkhead suggests he wasn't.

Of course it can't all be centred on games against them, but the powderfuff stuff against the others told us he couldn't cut it.

When we brought him to Ibrox he was playing his trade in China. There has to be a reason for that. From winning the Dutch league to China?
 
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SDF said:
Sakala was murder in Seville. The amount of times he made bad decisions and his team mates were losing the plot with him was ridiculous. We were a man down with him on.

Gio can be criticised for a lot of things. Hauling him off wasn't one of them. Absolutely no guarantee Sakala scores either. More likely he'd have ballooned it high and wide given how utterly shite he was when he was on.
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Getting Ramsey on the park to hit a penalty was absolutely the right thing to do, just not two minutes before the end of the match.

Neville and Carragher were talking about this on Stick to Football the other week - how difficult it is for a player to take a penalty when they've barely had a touch of the ball. Carragher missed his against Portugal, then you see Southgate's subs against Italy. It's madness, albeit there are no doubt examples where it has worked.

I agree with you that there were no guarantees Sakala would have scored his, but then again, the madman would probably have stepped up confidently knowing god was on his side.
 
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RossS1872 said:
Let's not rewrite history that Gio shouldn't have been sacked when he did. But it's clear that he did not nearly get backed as much as he wanted when you look at Beale getting (in his own words) his "number one striker" and going out to Italy to get Dessers. He wanted Cifuentes to take us to "the next level". He was given a top goalkeeper in Butland. He was backed with what he wanted, Gio wasn't and was far more deserving of it.
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If they'd given that money to Gio and he could clear out the deadwood we almost certainly would have done better in the league at least.
 
Gio was absolutely shafted when he qualified us for the Champions League. It was an absolute sin he wasn't given any money for reinforcements.

I still remember after beating PSV he was asked about new signings and how excited he was.
 
RTD-BEAR said:
They should have cashed in but they also told everyone that we had insurance on covid which in not sure has ever been realised in the the accounts since.

After 55 I can understand to an extent but we needed 2 players that summer that were starters and to move a few on.

After getting to seville, getting bassey into amazing form and getting to cl we did not back gio he earned us basically 60 mill in 6 months, we spent 10-12 that summer on edminston house before any sponsorships came in for it later from park.

But damage was done we again went for punts mainly ridvan is actually starting to be player we wanted if not so injury prone.

The board were delighted to post a profit while the team had needed surgery for 2 years. It should have been delayed until we were winning .

I'm similar I think the parks had a major impact on the change in how we operated but probably also some of the players attitudes ie renewing contacts or moving on.

Our recruitment has killed us Wilson was poor but I think he also was restricted by the board the bacuna deal made us money but a club or size taking a player for free with a 50% sell on it was creative at least.
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Tbf we signed Lundstram and Sakala who were supposed to be difference makers, despite arriving on Bosman's. I think we should have cased in on 1 of the big hitters (Morelos, Kent, Sakala, Aribo) that summer and reinvested just to freshen things up, but Gerrard apparently didn't want to see his squad broken up and took the huff that funds weren't available.
 
SDF said:
Sakala was murder in Seville. The amount of times he made bad decisions and his team mates were losing the plot with him was ridiculous. We were a man down with him on.

Gio can be criticised for a lot of things. Hauling him off wasn't one of them. Absolutely no guarantee Sakala scores either. More likely he'd have ballooned it high and wide given how utterly shite he was when he was on.
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He was taken off 2 mins before the penalties. It was all so Gio could get Ramsay to take a penalty and nothing to do with Sakala not playing well.
 
While I’ll argue that Gio got a raw deal, the mistake was not necessarily sacking him but in appointing Beale. The Board panicked.

In terms of signings, Gio lost Bassey + Aribo, two mainstays of the first XI.

We went from targeting Doekhi to buying Davies, a completely different type of player. We invested a significant part of the budget in a long-term left-back project.

The Summer was a recruitment mess and even CL qualification didn’t provide additional funds.
 
steve1873 said:
Tbf we signed Lundstram and Sakala who were supposed to be difference makers, despite arriving on Bosman's. I think we should have cased in on 1 of the big hitters (Morelos, Kent, Sakala, Aribo) that summer and reinvested just to freshen things up, but Gerrard apparently didn't want to see his squad broken up and took the huff that funds weren't available.
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Lundstram I get but was basically a replacement for Davis who we couldn't really do without at the time

Sakala was worth it I think his numbers would have been great under Beale and Clement as well his pace terrified teams.

I think there's two sides to it with Gerrard yes definately he took the huff and didn't want players to be sold.

But when we won 55 he was excited about the signings I suspect promises were made on players then changed and then was well if I'm not getting anyone to replace we can't sell anyone.

it lead to the issues with the team since.

Nor selling Alfie was a mistake by the board unlucky timing more as I think without the injury we win the el and prob sell him that summer he would have bullied that frankfurt def....... although we more than made our money with Alfie for what we paid.

Kent if hadnt signed in the summer he should have been sold after el final as well especially with what we paid for him

I get the covid season and understand to an extent but board did totally screw gio over we had money should have invested in quality
 
I think the sound bites from Gio in recent weeks about not being backed and not getting the players he wanted have kind of confirmed to me why he wasn’t the man for the job.

I don’t disbelieve anything he’s saying but he came across to me as someone who was very passive and too nice. What exactly was he doing or saying when Ross Wilson was fostering absolute guff signings on him? I’d like to think a decent manager would have been campaigning to get Wilson and his recruitment team so far to feck.

It was like when we had a shocker of a refereeing performance he’d refuse to even criticise and appeared really mealy mouthed.
 
gu_bear said:
I think the sound bites from Gio in recent weeks about not being backed and not getting the players he wanted have kind of confirmed to me why he wasn’t the man for the job.

I don’t disbelieve anything he’s saying but he came across to me as someone who was very passive and too nice. What exactly was he doing or saying when Ross Wilson was fostering absolute guff signings on him? I’d like to think a decent manager would have been campaigning to get Wilson and his recruitment team so far to feck.

It was like when we had a shocker of a refereeing performance he’d refuse to even criticise and appeared really mealy mouthed.
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If it’s true then he’s weak for not making it clear while he was here instead of crying about it years down the line.

Before Rodgers left for Leicester he constantly made it clear in interviews that he wasn’t the one making signings. Gio done the opposite and insisted he had final say on signings.
 
Looked into the penalty thing earlier and it turns out Man United made 4 subs between 116 and 120 minutes in the Europa League final in 2021 and all 4 scored their penalties. They still lost though, lol.

But aye, Ian Maatsen... he'd have been great.
 
JMCK said:
You're saying they "chucked it", and I'm the one talking nonsense? Are you saying the match at Hampden against Hearts, for instance, was a game where Lundstram and Diomande played no significant part?
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I mean, what are you talking about?

You're picking out the Hearts game as an example of them not bottling it, after they'd bottled it against Motherwell, the scum and Ross County? Sound logic.
 
MartinS93 said:
I mean, what are you talking about?

You're picking out the Hearts game as an example of them not bottling it, after they'd bottled it against Motherwell, the scum and Ross County? Sound logic.
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Am I? Refer me to where I even slightly mention the Hearts game in terms of "bottle"?
 
Colinstein69 said:
For a number of reasons, Gio is the unluckiest manager we've ever had.
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Gio was a cup manager. He knows how to win a 2 legged tie. He sees it as a game of chess over 180 minutes and he’s dn good at it. He set us up for a 1-0 loss in Braga for example. One they would have been happy with too.

It’s no surprise he struggled a lot more in a league setting - including a league of 4 in the CL.
 
JMCK said:
Am I? Refer me to where I even slightly mention the Hearts game in terms of "bottle"?
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To be honest, I don't have a f**King clue what point you're even attempting to make looking back over the posts.

Were you suggesting we didn't bottle it at Ross County after taking the lead, Motherwell at home and the scum at home?

That was what started this back n forth off, so christ knows what Hearts have to do with that.
 
mr magoo loyal said:
Beale was Parks preferred candidate and summer spending was all agreed on offering him the post as part of an overall board decision. A shit show generally occurs because of a terrible decision, and it's incredible how anyone could think Beale would be a better option than Gio.
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I agree, makes you wonder why they didn’t make the money Beale got available to Gio.
Gio had just got us to a European final and into the Champs league, they then gave him pennies to spend, let us be humiliated then hired the Charlatan and offered him loads to spend.
It was Madness and maybe Park is best to selling cars as he doesn’t know a hellava lot about football managers. The Son had an even worse eye than his Da
 
Why are people still saying Beale had more money to spend than GVB?

I'm assuming this is being conflated with our lack of business in the summer prior to GVB joining later
 
Lot of revisionism going on with Gio

The style of football domestically was genuinely awful. Horseshoe bollocks, struggling to create chances and conceding shocking goals

Didn’t the accounts show he spent about 12m quid or so during the summer? Not exactly a paltry budget.

I like Gio but he had to go
 
Candyass said:
Why are people still saying Beale had more money to spend than GVB?

I'm assuming this is being conflated with our lack of business in the summer prior to GVB joining later
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because the chairman said in the accounts we invested 21 mill into the playing squad in the summer. Though that will include wages.

Imho we brought in more than we paid and reduced wage bill significantly with Beale ..... and it does show.

Gio helped bring in prob something like 50 mill with seville/cl/ and Bassey into form of his life that's not included the 6 mill for aribo

He spent some no where near the 21 mill the chairman says Beale got

We started down sizing with Beale big time again it shows
 
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