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Gio on his time at the Rangers


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By ANDY DEVLIN

Published: 31 May 2010

Gio van Bronckhorst was on easy street.

The Dutch master had already become an Ibrox icon.

With a lucrative new deal on offer at Rangers, the midfield star wanted for nothing.

Nothing, that is, apart from a challenge.

Life, it seems, had become too easy.

After helping Gers to back-to-back titles, van Bronckhorst's mind began to wander as his passion for Scottish football began to wane.

His family were happy and settled, but the £5million signing from Feyenoord knew his time in Glasgow was up.

His love affair with Gers would have to end.

Speaking exclusively to SunSport, van Bronckhorst - who will hang up his boots after the World Cup - recalled his final days at Rangers and his desperation to join Arsenal in an £8.5m deal in the summer of 2001.

He said: "I went to Arsenal to find out where I was as a footballer.

"At Rangers I won the championship twice as well as two cups and if I had renewed my contract then I would have won 20 prizes but for me as a player that was too easy an option and as a footballer I wouldn't have improved.

"Sometimes in your career you have to have a transfer to sharpen you up, another place, and another league where it's more difficult.

"At Arsenal the higher level of training and matches brought me to a higher level.

"During my time there Arsenal won the league twice plus two FA cups but it didn't feel as if they were my prizes.

"I had contributed but had a bad feeling because I hadn't played enough matches."

Van Bronckhorst was one of the first to sign up for Dick Advocaat's Rangers revolution.

Snapped up from Feyenoord, he helped swell the Dutch ranks at Ibrox when he arrived in the summer of 1998.

He became an instant Ibrox hero - helping Gers land the treble in Advocaat's first season in charge.

It could all have been so different for van Bronckhorst had he listened to his Feyenoord boss Leo Beenhakker.

Van Bronckhorst revealed: "Beenhakker told me it was too soon and that it was the wrong league. He told me not to go to Rangers.

"I understood the vision of his criticism, but I firmly believed I could become better than I was.

"Rangers wasn't my top as I knew that after that I would make other steps to a higher level.

"At Rangers I felt I grew in stature as a player. It was another country, another style of play and that demands more from you.

"The standard of football wasn't better than Feyenoord, but the situation was completely different and that made me a better footballer.

"In Scotland I played central midfield and you had to work really hard and I think that the supporters appreciated that. They said I had the work-rate of a Scot.

"For me this was a big compliment because you had to stand up for yourself physically otherwise they would just knock you over."

Van Bronckhorst will call time on his glittering career after this summer's World Cup.

Now 35 and back at Feyenoord, the Dutch skipper has had plenty of offers to extend his playing career.

He insists the time is right to bow out.

He said: "Physically I'm still very fit but I'm convinced that this is the best decision.

"For every player there comes a moment when they know that enough is enough."

Read more: http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/2993115/Winning-medals-was-too-easy.html#ixzz0pSLBmZH8'>http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/2993115/Winning-medals-was-too-easy.html#ixzz0pSLBmZH8

http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/sport/2993115/Winning-medals-was-too-easy.html

He'll certainly always speak fondly of the famous.

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I didn't read anything there that sounded like him speaking fondly of us.

"In Scotland I played central midfield and you had to work really hard and I think that the supporters appreciated that. They said I had the work-rate of a Scot.

"For me this was a big compliment because you had to stand up for yourself physically otherwise they would just knock you over."

Not overly fond, I admit.

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I didn't read anything there that sounded like him speaking fondly of us.

I think it's more the SPL he wasn't speaking fondly of

Everything he said there was spot-on

Rangers are a club cursed by Geography

this is one of the best lines ive read in a while. totally agree

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I didn't read anything there that sounded like him speaking fondly of us.

I think it's more the SPL he wasn't speaking fondly of

Everything he said there was spot-on

Rangers are a club cursed by Geography

this is one of the best lines ive read in a while. totally agree

I know what you are saying but I don't think the location is what is the worst thing. It is a lack funds we suffer from.

If the SPL had cash the league would be better and we would be challenging at a higher level.

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I didn't read anything there that sounded like him speaking fondly of us.

I think it's more the SPL he wasn't speaking fondly of

Everything he said there was spot-on

Rangers are a club cursed by Geography

... and the nastiest, most bitter rivals in world sport.

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I didn't read anything there that sounded like him speaking fondly of us.

I think it's more the SPL he wasn't speaking fondly of

Everything he said there was spot-on

Rangers are a club cursed by Geography

this is one of the best lines ive read in a while. totally agree

I know what you are saying but I don't think the location is what is the worst thing. It is a lack funds we suffer from.

If the SPL had cash the league would be better and we would be challenging at a higher level.

We certainly never lacked funds when we signed Gio though craphead2.gif

But yes, this adds to the problem now

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I didn't read anything there that sounded like him speaking fondly of us.

I think it's more the SPL he wasn't speaking fondly of

Everything he said there was spot-on

Rangers are a club cursed by Geography

... and the nastiest, most bitter rivals in world sport.

well yes, that too

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I didn't read anything there that sounded like him speaking fondly of us.

I think it's more the SPL he wasn't speaking fondly of

Everything he said there was spot-on

Rangers are a club cursed by Geography

this is one of the best lines ive read in a while. totally agree

I know what you are saying but I don't think the location is what is the worst thing. It is a lack funds we suffer from.

If the SPL had cash the league would be better and we would be challenging at a higher level.

We certainly never lacked funds when we signed Gio though craphead2.gif

But yes, this adds to the problem now

We did, we ended up in aa shitload of debt.

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I didn't read anything there that sounded like him speaking fondly of us.

I think it's more the SPL he wasn't speaking fondly of

Everything he said there was spot-on

Rangers are a club cursed by Geography

this is one of the best lines ive read in a while. totally agree

I know what you are saying but I don't think the location is what is the worst thing. It is a lack funds we suffer from.

If the SPL had cash the league would be better and we would be challenging at a higher level.

We certainly never lacked funds when we signed Gio though craphead2.gif

But yes, this adds to the problem now

We did, we ended up in aa shitload of debt.

which no-one predicted - or if they did, they didn't care

We went chasing the Champions League dream and everyone bought into it - we should use that period as a warning so that we never get into this situation again

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which no-one predicted - or if they did, they didn't care

We went chasing the Champions League dream and everyone bought into it - we should use that period as a warning so that we never get into this situation again

Don't get me wrong, I loved having the big name players. When we were spending like we were I think everyone assumed that we could afford it but we obviously couldn't.

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which no-one predicted - or if they did, they didn't care

We went chasing the Champions League dream and everyone bought into it - we should use that period as a warning so that we never get into this situation again

Don't get me wrong, I loved having the big name players. When we were spending like we were I think everyone assumed that we could afford it but we obviously couldn't.

I know - Sometimes I think back and wonder why no-one stopped and thought 'hang on.....will this come back and bite us?'

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which no-one predicted - or if they did, they didn't care

We went chasing the Champions League dream and everyone bought into it - we should use that period as a warning so that we never get into this situation again

Don't get me wrong, I loved having the big name players. When we were spending like we were I think everyone assumed that we could afford it but we obviously couldn't.

I didn't understand why we couldn't pay for the wages back then there were lots of season tickets sold and we always had a full Ibrox every home game.

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We went chasing the Champions League dream and everyone bought into it - we should use that period as a warning so that we never get into this situation again

Despite the doom and gloom that surrounds us at times financially I think sometimes it's time to take a step nack and look at just how bad things could have been. I give you Leeds. The same asperations as Rangers, but look at the total freefall they went into as a result. We should count ourselves lucky. In saying that, probably much like Leeds fans at the time, nobody was complaining about the possible fall out.

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Liked him as a player but lost a lot of respect for him..

School trip to train with Feyenoord a year or two back, we got to watch Feyenoord train one of the days and during it, we began to do the Michael Mols chant and then "Gio, Gio, Gio!" Mols came over, signed autographs, got pictures and spoke away with everyone, Gio just looked at us as if he couldn't care less and went on with his training. All he had to do was take five minutes out to even say hi and he didn't. :dry:

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Liked him as a player, probably moved at the right time for his career, i went to the last game he played at Ibrox and iv never heard abuse towards our own players as i heard 1 guy give him because he was leaving (td)

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From day one Gio said he would be staying at Rangers and then moving onto the EPL or another top league and I admired his honestly. What I can't be doing with are those players saying they want to stay with us for the rest of their careers and then buggering off.

On the park Gio was different class. Certainly one of the best players I've seen in a blue jersey.

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quality player, but i do recall him hardly kicking a ball for us in his last season. i think he had an injury for a while but he either wasnt motivated to come back, or didnt want to risk getting injured again before his summer move so he hardly played? i do remember a lot of fans being annoyed with his attitude towards the end of his time with us.

could have remembered it wrong, but either way thats life i suppose.

he didnt get into life at gers like Numan or others from the Dutch contingent.

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We did, we ended up in aa shitload of debt.

which no-one predicted - or if they did, they didn't care

We went chasing the Champions League dream and everyone bought into it - we should use that period as a warning so that we never get into this situation again

David Murray was thought of as a very astute businessman, he had built up an empire worth millions and was treated like a hero by the fans..

He should have seen it coming

He was the one that kept spending until we were 80m in debt, not Advocaat, not the fans, Murray

He was the one that reduced the debt to around 5m and promised "this time net year we'll be debt free"

He was the one that sanctioned a crazy spending spree after Kaunas, basically to massage his ego, never mind the fact it put us in the shite again

He is the guy that has sold off our land and money making revenues

"aw we should all huv kent better, im fae the scheme by the way did i tell ye that?"

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