Former Netherlands coach Dwight Lodeweges admits that he turned down the chance to join Giovanni van Bronckhorst at Scottish Premiership champions Rangers recently, speaking to ESPN.
This week, Van Bronckhorst will celebrate his three month anniversary as Rangers manager.
The sample size is still relatively small of course. Though we can start to draw some conclusions about how things have progressed in the pose-Steven Gerrard era at Ibrox.
That Celtic disaster apart, the results have remained, for the most part, solid if not spectacular. Yes, the performances away from home need some work.
But the likes Alfredo Morelos and Joe Aribo are playing arguably the best football of their careers.
And, having won their last three games by an aggregate score of 10-0 since being blown away by a Celtic storm at Parkhead, even Neil Lennon has been impressed about the way Rangers have responded to their worst performance of the Van Bronckhorst reign.
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Yori Bosschaart and Arno Phillips worked with Van Bronckhorst during that title-winning campaign at Feyenoord in 2016/17. They, alongside former Bayern Munich striker Roy Makaay, are now forming a key part of a new-look Rangers backroom staff.
Lodeweges, an ultra-experienced 64-year-old who began his coaching career at a time when a moustachioed Graeme Souness was sitting on the Ibrox bench, has been offered the chance to join Van Bronchorst on the blue side of Glasgow.
But, according to ESPN, Lodeweges opted to remain in the Netherlands with his wife still recovering from a recent accident.
“I could have gone to Scotland with Giovanni van Bronckhorst,” explains Lodeweges.
A former PSV and Heerenveen boss, Lodeweges took over from Frank de Boer in the national team hotseat on an interim basis before Louis van Gaal’s sudden return to management.
“(Joining Rangers) would, of course, be wonderful. But I couldn’t do that.”
Rangers swatted aside Hibernian 2-0 in their most recent Premiership outing, three days after putting five past another Edinburgh-based outfit – high-flying Hearts.
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