Unimpressed Charlie Nicholas has told Gio van Bronckhorst his Rangers financial excuses don't add up. The Dutchman claimed the Europa League finalists need "hundreds of millions" of to compete with Champions League rivals Liverpool, Napoli and Ajax.
But the former Celtic striker reckons that doesn't add up, and his pointed to the raft of talent which left the Dutch champions before they trounced Rangers 4-0.
Nicholas remains a backer of Van Bronckhorst and believes the criticism of the 47-year-old, on the whole, has been overblown after the sorry results against rivals Celtic and the capitulation against Ajax.
But he insists things must improve ahead of the visit of Napoli on Wednesday night. Speaking in his Express column, he said: "Rangers have been getting a kicking over their heavy defeats to Celtic and Ajax - but they are not suddenly a bad team and some of the stick being aimed at Gio van Bronckhorst is way over the top. "However, I wasn't buying the manager's excuses about it being too much to ask Rangers to compete with the Champions League elite because of money.