Danny Rohl surely knew what he was getting into at Rangers. If he didn’t, Thursday’s defeat to Brann will have been a rude awakening.

In Rangers’ first match under Russell Martin’s replacement, they were beaten 3-0 away to Norwegian side SK Brann in the Europa League.

Brann 3-0 Rangers: The key moments in Rohl’s first match ??

• Gers fall behind in the 40th minute
• Brann double their lead 10 minutes into the second half
• Mikey Moore misses huge chance five minutes later
• Rohl’s men fail to threaten a comeback; Noah Holm rubs salt in the wounds late on

Managing Rangershas become something of a poisoned chalice, and Rohl is the latest man brave enough to take it on.

Former manager Steven Gerrard was the club’s top choice to replace Martin, but he pulled out after emerging as the frontrunner.

Rohl then quickly went from being the leading alternative to being out of the equation entirely — making the appointment of Kevin Muscat seem inevitable, only for him to pull out too, allowing Rohl to re-emerge as the favourite.

After Steven Smith took charge of Saturday’s 2-2 Scottish Premiership draw at home to Dundee United, Rohl was in place for Thursday’s trip to Norway, with Rangers searching for their first points in the 2025/26 Europa League.

Unfortunately for the former Sheffield Wednesday boss, it was another embarrassing result in an embarrassing season for the Gers, who looked uninspired in attack and shaky defensively as they lost 3-0 to Brann.

READ MORE:?Russell Martin shows football clubs are often in the hands of fools

New manager, same result for Rangers

There wasn’t much sympathy for Russell Martin during his catastrophic spell in charge, and Rangers fans won’t be passing on much to Rohl either. But at some point, you have to look at the playing squad and realise it’s simply nowhere near good enough.

And that stems from what’s going on way above the manager, with recruitment nothing short of a shambles under the club’s new ownership group.

There were such high hopes when a 49ers Enterprises-led consortium acquired a majority stake in Rangers back in May, but less than five months on, the mood couldn’t be any lower at Ibrox.

Rohl surely knew what he was getting into, yet his unveiling would still have managed to surprise him, as he became the sideshow while owner Andrew Cavanagh, chief executive Patrick Stewart, and sporting director Kevin Thelwell fell into the firing line.

Thelwell and Stewart, in particular, have been absolutely blasted for the ongoing shambles, with the former admitting he underestimated the size of the club — an incredibly naive thing to say and do.

It’s nothing short of a circus. Now that Thelwell, Stewart and Cavanagh have faced the media to try and explain Rangers’ horrific start to the season and Martin’s disastrous spell in charge — which ended with him requiring a police escort out of Falkirk’s stadium — it’s time for Rohl to become the face of a failing operation and attempt to explain where everything is going wrong.

Thursday’s result and performance were no better than the dross Rangers produced under Martin. It was simply a case of new man in the dugout, same mess on the pitch.

The damage Kevin thelwell & Patrick Stewart has done to this football club can’t be understated

Holding them accountable for their actions has nothing to do with not backing Danny Rohl

Getting those 2 clowns out will only help Rohl

— CJ (@cjnovo992) October 23, 2025

Rangers Football Club: Scotland’s answer to Manchester United

There are some alarming similarities between Rangers and another underperforming giant, Manchester United.

No matter who the manager is, or how much money is spent, neither club seems to find a fix.

Players have been signed with high expectations and massively faltered. Players have been signed for baffling fees and also faltered. So-called elite managers have ultimately failed. And it’s all accumulated into a toxic atmosphere among the supporters.

There’s no clear fix as both clubs continue to fall well short of their gigantic expectations.

As has often been the question at Man United, it’s now the same for Rangers: where do they go from here? What can Rohl do to get this squad full of underperforming players performing at the required level? Confidence will go a long way, but that can only come from getting results.

What next for Rangers?

Rohl will hope for his first win as Rangers boss — and only the club’s second in the league this season — when they host Kilmarnock on Sunday.

After that, it’s a quick turnaround with a trip to Hibernian three days later, before the small matter of the Old Firm derby at Celtic Park on November 2.

Celtic are beatable right now, but Rangers’ issues go far deeper than that. And with AS Roma coming to Ibrox just four days after the derby, there’s no easy route to a turnaround.

Long story short: it’s not looking good.