ALEX’S ANGLE: DANNY ROHL, GAME FOR A LAUGH

WHO KNEW Danny Rohl was such a kooky funster?

A German with a sense of humour? You won’t find too many of them around.

And before you call me racist, please let me inform you my ball and chain Gerda is named after her mum who was born in a place called Flensburg which is just inside the German border at Denmark.

We always got on well – yes, dear reader, I actually liked my mother-in-law! – so there will be no tired old Les Dawson jokes from that fertile and well-visited area of mirth.

By the way, did you know they call our language the mother tongue because the father seldom gets to speak? (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

Let’s get back to Danny Boy who vamoosed out of Ibrox with indecent haste in the summer when RB Salzburg came calling.

NO LAUGHING MATTER…Danny Rohl can’t bear to look during the Ibrox collapse.

I doubt if he hesitated to say Auf Wiedersehen to his employers of thirty weeks. He had been sacked by Sheffield Wednesday before he got the nod to take over from Russell Martin who had been similarly dismissed by his Govan paymasters to make way for a manager who has yet to win an honour of any description.

Rohl faced wily, old Martin O’Neill, at 74 years old twice the age of his Zwickau-born opposite number, on four occasions and failed to win any of them.

The Irishman oversaw the Ibrox side’s exits from the League Cup and Scottish Cup plus gained a 2-2 draw at Ibrox and a 3-1 success at Parkhead in the Premiership.

Celtic won the title TEN points ahead of Rohl’s men who finished in third place eight adrift of runners-up Hearts.

Just to bring down the curtain on a truly extraordinary crusade, O’Neill led the team to the double with a 3-1 Scottish Cup Final triumph over Dunfermline at Hampden on May 23.

So, credit where it is due? Even through clenched Teutonic teeth?

Nein! No chance.

Instead, Rohl is convinced if his team had taken an opportunity while they led 2-0 in Govan on March 1 then Celtic would not have won their fifth successive title OR the Scottish Cup.

Apparently, the German managed to keep a straight face when he delivered a line that would surely have graced Des O’Conner’s Bumper Book of Top 100 Gags.

PLAYING THE JOKER…Martin O’Neill celebrates at Ibrox.

Rohl mused: “The stadium was on fire that day against Celtic. If Tuur Rommens had scored with a chance to make it 3-0, Celtic would NOT have won the league or the Scottish Cup.

“Because, at that moment, we would have gone four points ahead and we would have killed them.”

Hmm…Herr Rohl may have picked a more suitable phrase at the conclusion of his observation.

Maybe he was slapping his thigh with verve and gusto shortly after his appraisal.

Prior to that claim, the poor man’s Jurgen Klopp had told the Daily Record: “At the split, every Rangers fan felt we would win the league. They wanted it and the team wanted it.

“You could feel the spirit and energy. Before the Motherwell game at Ibrox, it was incredible. But that was a difficult one at 2-0 down. Then we came back to 2-2 and unfortunately conceded for 3-2. It was a killer.

“In that game, the belief was there. But to really make it, you have to win that game. Then we went to Hearts and deserved to lead 1-0. They didn’t have the answers to how we wanted to play.

“But in the second-half, we dropped back and made some easy mistakes. We lost easy goals. Then you go to Celtic and lose again. All of the results were very close, but not close enough.

“And maybe that was the feeling I had earlier in the season as well. Against Celtic at Ibrox before, we were 2-0 up, but conceded for 2-2 with a late penalty.

“These are small moments. But to win the league, you need that momentum to go with you. We just didn’t have that in our last few weeks together.”

I just hope the RB Salzburg fans are ready for Danny’s snappy one-liners when he takes control in the new season.

Mind you, if Rohl fails to deliver yet again, as he did in Sheffield and Glasgow, the joke will undoubtedly be on him in Salzburg.

ALEX GORDON

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