Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst has confirmed that three of his key men – Leon Balogun, Calvin Bassey and Joe Aribo will be eligible to feature against Celtic before joining up with the Nigeria squad for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.
There were fears that all three would miss the Parkhead showdown to prepare for the tournament that will be staged over four weeks in Cameroon from January 9.
“They will be here with the team, 100 per cent. For me, it was already clear that we would release them if needed after the Old Firm game,”Van Bronckhorst said:
“So we have the full squad until we go into the winter break.”
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The loss of Aribo in particular would have been a damaging blow for Rangers given his fine form since Van Bronckhorst’s appointment at Ibrox.
The playmaker would miss the Old Firm fixture if he picks up a booking against Dundee United and Van Bronckhorst will carefully consider his team selection.
He said: “You are preparing the game for [Saturday], but you obviously have your plans for the next games if possible, especially if you have players one card from suspension.
“Also physically you have to watch the load for the players. You have to take everything into account.”
5 Comments
I hope Aribo can bring his Rangers form to the SE in Afcon…I’ve watched almost all Rangers games this season and Aribo has been outstanding…he was fantastic against St.Johnstone he has incredible first touch…Aribo is a complete midfielder I hope our ‘consortium’ of coaches can play him in a more attacking role. I will be shocked if he remains at Rangers at the end of the season.
Hmmmm… The same way klopp wants to delay mane and Salah untill after the Chelsea game..
We can use Ndidi and Onyeka as the two deep lying midfielders and then throw in Aribo as a number 10..seems to be more productive than Iwobi in that role. Iwobi can be switched to the left wing or right wing as the need arises. S.E is an Easy team to coach for a technically gifted coach. Rohr lacked that and I’m sure Egu will bring all the missing ingredient and swagger that characterise a normal S.E team with good results following. God bless Carezo . We the fans are solidly behind u. We haven’t forgotten how you wallop Ghana 4;0 in Lagos but all our professional withdraw before the second leg in Accra which we lost and today people are saying you couldn’t quilify under 23 for the Olympics without stating the underlining factores .
So because the professionals withdrew and he lost a 4:0 advantage in the second leg? Did he use the female team for the 2nd leg for them to lose such a big advantaged scoreline?
Some of you guys are simply unbelievable with your wishy-washy excuses
Obviously we can make excuses for Egu because he is ‘one of our own”. Nigerians are unbelievable.
The best thing those “unanimously irresponsible” NFF clowns should have done is to help Rohr with someone technically sound. And Amuneke in his arrogance thought he was too big to work with Rohr. When it comes to life experience, abundance of which Rohr has, any smart younger person in Amuneke’s shos will jump at an opportunity to tap in. Managing a team is a lot more than knowing football theory. Human management skills are equally important, even more important.
Two of the biggest problems amongst others with Naija coaches is egunje and poor man management. One of Rohr’s greatest strength is man management. Thay is why NFF was owing players enourmous bonuses and Rohr could still manage the team regardless. How many coaches, local or foreign, do you think can get any results under that situation?
When you have an asset of a man in an area that really matters, the best you could do is to support him to succeed. But I think with all the reckless and greedy agbero boys managing NFF, with a certain racist, biased and glutinous “elder” whose days of glory has already passed, we cannot expect anything better than what they did.
Welcome to the days of player agents agents. We are in for another stormy ride. Our local coaches cannot help being corrupt. They are completely immersed in Naija diseases. And with the amount thee guys owe Rohr because of their recklessness, I hope NFF is not already in a big financial mess. Let them owe those coaches and let’s see if they will not take bribe. Let them owe the players as they were doing under Rohr and let’s see if the players will keep honoring their invitations.
Coaches get hired and fired. There is mo big deal in firing Rohr. But the problem only lies in the way they went about it, and the kind or replacement they made. It is very wrong on many levels. Anyone who is in support of the way these brainless NFF went about it is definitely as brainless as them. Anyways, if Buhari can get the second term ticket in Naija, then that speaks volume on how much commonsense most Nigerias have