CHRIS SUTTON insists Danny Rohl is under pressure as the tension mounts in a fascinating title race.
And the man piling the surplus stress on the Ibrox manager is fairly close to home – the German himself.
Rohl made some bizarre observations about Celtic as he prepared for the Premiership tussle with the champions at the start of the month.
CQN wondered if the Govan gaffer, who has never won a solitary piece of silverware, was attempting to get involved in mind games with Martin O’Neill, a team chief double his age and with a proven track record.
As Celtic book author Alex Gordon put it in his Alex’s Angle column: “It would be like taking a pinky to a fist fight.”
MEETING OF THE MINDS…Danny Rohl and Martin O’Neill before the 2-2 draw at Ibrox at the start of the month.
Rohl pointed out the Hoops had lost “seven or eight league games” while he couldn’t fathom why they hadn’t tried to win more convincingly in Stuttgart after taking the lead in 29 seconds through Luke McCowan.
And he also threw in his tuppence worth on the goalkeeping situation concerning Kasper Schmeichel and Viljami Sinisalo.
That provoked the stinging response from O’Neill: “So, he’s picking our team? Well done, old Danny, well done.”
The Irishman celebrated his 74th birthday in Govan on March 1 and watched his team come back from 2-0 down at the interval to gain a point with goals from Kieran Tierney and Reo Hatate.
A week later, O’Neill and his players left the same venue after securing a place in the Scottish Cup semi-final against St Mirren next month following a 4-2 penalty-kick shoot-out success after a scoreless extra-time stalemate.
The champions are also sitting in second place in the league, two points adrift of Hearts and one ahead of the Ibrox side with eight games to go.
The strain may be beginning to tell and former Hoops goal hero Sutton, speaking on 5 Live, said: “Danny Rohl at Rangers, I think he’s had too much to say for himself in recent times.
“Danny opened his mouth and was telling Celtic how they should have played in Europe.
GOVAN GLEE…Martin O’Neill acknowledges the Celtic fans after the team’s Scottish Cup penalty-kick shoot-out triumph at Ibrox.
“And this is coming from a guy in Europe whose record was actually pretty dire.
“I think that ramped up the pressure on Danny Rohl because I think Rangers fans will be thinking: ‘Why don’t you just keep your mouth shut, Danny?
‘Why are you getting involved in telling Martin O’Neill how to play?’
“It’s okay if you’re seeing games through at Ibrox against Celtic, 2-0 up and you win that. It’s okay if you knock Celtic out of the Cup, but he didn’t.
“And in many respects people are thinking Danny has taken his eye off the ball.
“So, the pressure is ranked up on Rangers now.”
O’Neill will take the Hoops to Tannadice on Sunday to face Dundee United in the 12.30pm kick-off while Rohl’s club are at home the previous evening against Aberdeen in the 5.45pm start.
Hearts are at home to Dundee with a 3pm commencement on Saturday.
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