Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst
Rangers manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst was only in place at Ibrox for a year

Giovanni van Bronckhorst had been in charge of Rangers for a year and the club is nine points behind Celtic in the title race.

The Dutch coach guided his team to the final of the Europa League and the Scottish Cup in his first year.

After recording the worst ever group stage campaign and falling further off the title pace, Van Bronckhorst's 12 month tenure is over.

Rangers chairman Douglas Park said he wanted to thank Giovanni for the hard work he has put in over the last year.

We have taken this difficult decision because recent results have not met our expectations. Everyone at Rangers would like to wish Gio good fortune in the future.

Rangers dropped points in three of their last five league outings after a draw at St Mirren on November 12th.

Several of the club's summer signings were struggling to make an impact as a result of the club's heavy losses.

John Souttar, Tom Lawrence, Rabbi Matondo, and Ridvan Yilmaz have all missed time due to injury.

In order to boost the club's finances early in the season, they beat Union Saint-Gilloise and PSV Eindhoven, but have since lost nine of 27 games.

Rangers let a six-point league lead slip under the former Netherlands captain, before winning a first domestic cup since 2011.

The annual meeting of Rangers will be held early next month and the team will play their first home game of the season against Hibs on December 15th.

The League Cup semi-finals will take place in January and the Scottish Cup will be played in January.