Many Rangers supporters have always wondered why, in his nine years as manager at Ibrox, Giovanni van Bronckhorst never brought any Dutch players to Scotland.
Despite having strong ties to the Netherlands and having gone through two transfer windows in Glasgow, the former captain of the Oranje international team was never able to persuade a Dutchman to relocate to Ibrox.
But it wasn’t out of a lack of desire to attempt.
Tijjani Reijnders, a midfielder for AC Milan, was cautioned by his former teammate Bert Konterman about moving to Ibrox.
Although Danilho Doekhi elected to relocate to Union Berlin, they maintained close ties while he was at Vitesse Arnhem.
As Xavi Simons’ time with PSG was coming to an end, he ended up at PSV Eindhoven.
But now that Van Bronckhorst has admitted he attempted to lure Chelsea prospect Ian Maatsen to Glasgow, it seems Rangers wanted another young Dutch player on their books.
Van Bronckhorst: Rangers tried to sign Maatsen
Strong transfer rumors involving Rangers and young Chelsea talent Ian Maatsen were prevalent at the time.
Before joining Chelsea in 2018, the little-known Dutch left-back attended the youth programs of Feyenoord, Sparta Rotterdam, and PSV.
After that, Maatsen would play on loan at different EFL levels for Charlton, Coventry, and Burnley until making his debut at Stamford Bridge early in the current campaign.
The Dutch media has since been informed by Giovanni van Bronckhorst that he attempted to sign Maatsen to Rangers, most likely in the summer of 2022, before to the left-back’s move to Burnley.
The Telegraph is claiming that Chelsea hopes to spend an incredible £35 million for the 22-year-old, who has shown promise in the Bundesliga and Champions League, after he just joined Borussia Dortmund on loan in January.
The left-back looks set to have booked his place in the Champions League final too, Dortmund having overcome PSG 2-0 on aggregate to reach this season’s Wembley showpiece.
Van Bronckhorst told Dutch football show VTBL that Maatsen was ‘on my list’ at Rangers but ‘in the end it didn’t work out’.
Transfer failed doomed Rangers manager
The ambitious links to Ian Maatsen point to where it might’ve just gone wrong for Rangers and Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
The Dutch coach was eventually sacked at the end of 2022, one year on from being appointed at Ibrox, despite guiding the club to the Europa League Final the same year.
Gio had overseen a disastrous downturn in domestic form at Ibrox, letting slip a seven point lead in the Scottish Premiership to gift the title to Ange Postecoglou’s Celtic.
The Dutchman also flapped domestically the following season, and after humiliation in the Champions League, paid the ultimately penalty.
But how different might things have been had Van Bronckhorst got his way in the transfer market and had better luck with injuries.
Several of the players signed during the Dutchman’s tenure struggled to make an impact and Rangers are still paying the price of injuries to high profile players like Ridvan Yilmaz, Tom Lawrence and Ben Davies.
It’s something which has wounded the Dutchman, who claims he left Rangers in the ‘wrong way’ back in 2022.
Strongly linked with a managerial return next season, Ibrox legend Ally McCoist has claimed that Gio was ‘harshly treated’ at Rangers.
With the likes of Besiktas and former club Feyenoord mentioned, the former likely to lose Arne Slot to Liverpool, let’s hope we see Van Bronckhorst back in the dugout before long.
The comments about Ian Maatsen also back up claims from Ross Wilson that Rangers came close to signing a young Dutch player back in 2022.
