Gio van Bronckhorst and the Rangers danger of putting his foot in it at wrong time - Keith Jackson

He thinks deeply and boxes cleverly.

In fact, Gio van Bronckhorst is the kind of manager who filters every word long before it ever leaves his mouth. But now the pressure is beginning to build, it does feel as if the Rangers boss might be in danger of putting his foot in it at all the wrong moments. In the immediate aftermath of last week’s shellacking in Amsterdam, van Bronckhorst offered up a plea of mitigation which was completely lacking in any kind of self-awareness.

By admitting his squad is not lavishly enough kitted out to stand a chance of competing against Europe’s elite, the Dutchman infuriated large sections of his most staunch supporters who took his words as a verbal throwing in of the towel, just one game into their long-awaited Champions League return. That’ll still be hanging over him tonight when he sends out his team to face Napoli at a heaving Ibrox. Should it all go so horribly wrong again against the rampant Italians then van Bronckhorst will find himself under even heavier fire.

So it was curious then that yesterday, while bullishly defending his own philosophy on how the game should be played, he also succeeded in cranking up the pressure on himself with another admission that could come back to haunt him before the week is out.

“Being a Rangers manager or a Rangers player, two defeats in a row is not acceptable,” is how he phrased it on the back of those crushing back-to-back losses to Celtic and Ajax. Van Bronckhorst added: “That’s something different than putting your philosophy aside. We’ll go out tomorrow with the same philosophy and try to win the game.”

Even so, his frank appraisal prompted one obvious question. If he accepts two defeats on the bounce is ‘unacceptable’ where does he go