Ranking The Last Five Rangers Managers – Including A Liverpool Legend

The last few years for Rangers have been a real rollercoaster ride. The peaks have been high – but likewise, the valleys have been very deep.

Today, we’ll be looking at the last five permanent Rangers managers and ranking them. One of them led the Gers to their first Scottish Premiership title in ten years, while another’s reign was described as a ‘mess’.

For the purposes of this list, we won’t be including caretaker managers or interim bosses – therefore, Jimmy Nicholl won’t be making an appearance.

Pedro Caixinha

When talking about Pedro Caixinha’s managerial stint, the positives are few and far between. The Portuguese head coach had success at clubs such as Cruz Azul and Santos Laguna, but this was not translated into his time in Glasgow.

Under Caixinha’s reign, the Light Blues suffered one of their most humiliating defeats in history as they were beaten by FC Progrès Niederkorn in the Europa League qualifiers – a team that had never won a European game until then.

Not only this, under his tenure, Rangers failed to even reach second place in the league – let alone first. In 2016/17, Rangers finished third – nine points behind second-placed Aberdeen and a whopping 39 points behind Celtic.

Graeme Murty

‘Hold on,’ we hear you ask. ‘Wasn’t Graeme Murty a caretaker manager?’ Yes, he was – but he was given the full title of Rangers manager on October 26, 2017.

Murty’s time as Rangers boss was uninspiring. The Gers were given two major thumpings against Celtic during his tenure, which did little to help his case.

He was never seen as a long-term option by the board, the fans or even himself – but considering this, Murty did a serviceable job as Rangers boss.

Giovanni Van Bronckhorst

It’s a real shame that Giovanni Van Bronckhorst’s Rangers reign ended in such ignominy. The season before he was sacked, he led the club to a Europa League final and a Scottish Cup victory.

Despite this, under Van Bronckhorst, the Gers never looked likely to usurp Celtic’s position as the top team in Scotland. In his final season, he oversaw a painful 4-0 defeat against Rangers’ greatest rivals – it was a defeat that saw many lose confidence in the Dutchman.

Nevertheless, GVB was a major, major improvement over the last two entries in our list. He featured for Rangers as a player, too, from 1998 to 2001.

Michael Beale

It may be somewhat unfair to rank Michael Beale in this list, given that his time as Rangers manager is still in its primordial stages – but so far, he’s had a fantastic start to life at the club.

He made the jump from QPR to Rangers in November of 2022 – since then, the Gers have lost just a single league game under his stewardship.

Beale also excelled as an assistant manager to the next head coach on our list – no prizes for guessing who it is!

Steven Gerrard

Steven Gerrard was responsible for restoring Rangers to their rightful spot at the top of the SPFL – even if only for a single season.

Nevertheless, it was a monumental achievement, considering where the club was just nine years beforehand. With Gerrard at the helm, Rangers completed a famous double over Celtic in the 2020/21 season.

Not only this – during that fateful year, Rangers went the entire league season without losing a single game. Gerrard may not have had the best of times at Aston Villa, but his Rangers tenure will be remembered by Light Blues fans for years to come.