What a load of 'gelul' - Rangers civil war is the last thing Giovanni van Bronckhorst needs

The Dutch have a word for it - gelul. Do a quick Google translation and you’ll get the idea.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst chose to mouth the English version of it under his breath at Dens Park last Sunday as play was delayed by Rangers supporters’ protests against the club’s decision to face Celtic in the Sydney Super Cup tournament in Australia later this year.

After the game, van Bronckhorst defended the right of fans to make their feelings known but asked that, going forward, they did so in a balanced manner which did not impede the efforts of his players on the pitch.

But if the Rangers manager hoped the international break might help soothe the festering discontent of those supporters towards those calling the shots in the Ibrox boardroom, he has been left disappointed.

The past few days have seen Club 1872 fire a lengthy and excoriating broadside at the executive management team at Rangers, which was quickly followed by a more succinct but no less disparaging response to the fan shareholder group from an official club statement.

Now former chairman Dave King, a long-term ally of Club 1872, has followed up his own recent criticism of the Rangers board with an intimation he is prepared to foot the bill for any penalty clause the Scottish champions would have to pay in order to extricate themselves from the contract they have signed to head to Sydney in November.

In the month which sees Rangers formally marking their 150th anniversary, it all adds up to an undignified sideshow with faint echoes of the disconnect and mistrust between supporters and directors from the grim days of the club’s financial collapse in 2012 and the civil war which followed between rival factions.

Not all Rangers fans, of course, have the