Gers boss can point to mitigating factors but that doesn't alter fact he's struggling to meet the first three basic demands of his own job - to organise, motivate and improve

Rohl's chutzpah has got him into one fine mess at Ibrox...

- BY KEITH JACKSON

THERE are very many reasons to feel genuine sympathy for Danny Rohl and perhaps to want to cut the German some slack.

For a start, he's been shoehorned into a position which many older, wiser and vastly more experienced operators would find almost impossible to deal with. At the age of 36, and with only one full season in management behind him, Rohl was at least brave enough to accept and take on the challenge of confronting the utter chaos left behind by Russell Martin. And he was willing to do so at a place and time when sporting director Kevin Thelwell and chief executive Patrick Stewart were still manning the command centre and calling the shots.

He willingly went to work for them and took on a squad which had been downgraded by the pair of these error-prone executives to such an extent that it may well be the least talented, least capable group of individuals seen masquerading as Rangers players in the top flight since the early 1980s.

And he did so full in the knowledge that the demands and expectations of the fans remained undiminished.

As a matter of fact, the weekly protests against Martin, Thelwell and Stewart were so ferocious in nature and so publicly visible, that Rohl must have known he was speeding straight into a car crash. And yet, even so, he was absolutely prepared to strap himself into the driver's seat and take his chances, even though the likes of Steven Gerrard and Kevin Muscat had taken one look at the smoking carnage down the road and thought better of it.

So, in many ways, Rohl is to be admired if only for his sheer chutzpah and undented self-belief.