When Celtic were in their brief and chaotic death spiral under Wilfried Nancy, it was Danny Rohl who would be cast in the role of the grim reaper.
Rohl led Rangers to a 3-1 victory away at Celtic Park back in early January, a match which served as the last rites for Nancy before the axe fell just two days later.
How the tables have turned. Heading into the final Old Firm derby of the season, it is Rohl who now has the look of a haunted man as he heads back to the scene of his finest hour as Rangers manager.
A dead man walking? It’s not as cast-iron as it was with Nancy. But there is no question that Rohl’s life expectancy has shortened considerably over the past fortnight.
The topic of the manager’s future has split opinion among the Rangers support after back-to-back defeats to Motherwell and Hearts effectively ended their hopes of winning the title.
There are those who retain faith in Rohl, pointing to the way he dragged the club back into the title race, and they feel he deserves the chance to start afresh next season.
Danny Rohl lapped up the celebrations at Parkhead in January after masterminding a 3-1 win
There are also those who believe he is finished. Another busted flush who has botched a brilliant opportunity to win the league.
Yet, whether the glass is to be viewed as half-full or half-empty, one thing’s for sure. Rohl’s future and long-term suitability as manager is now a major talking point.
His reputation has absolutely tanked over this past fortnight. The credit in the bank that he had built since arriving in October is now all but gone completely.
Were he to suffer another defeat to Martin O’Neill’s Celtic tomorrow afternoon, it is not beyond the realms Rangers could pull the plug in the summer.
That’s how quickly this has unravelled for the young German. A man who looked like he could walk on water in the eyes of Rangers fans at the turn of the year is now in danger of drowning as another season of mediocrity comes to its conclusion.
Rohl has faced O’Neill three times so far this season and is yet to taste victory. Two of those three games saw Celtic knock Rangers out of both domestic cup competitions.
These matches form part of the bigger picture around Rohl; his record in big matches is nowhere near good enough. The numbers don’t lie.
Since taking charge, he has presided over 15 matches against opponents in the top six of this season’s Premiership — and won only six of them.
Rangers lost to Celtic at Hampden in the League Cup semi-finals shortly after his arrival, albeit they did make a decent fist of it with ten men and took the tie to extra-time.
They then squandered a 2-0 lead in a league game at Ibrox as Celtic came back to draw 2-2, a spectacular soiling of the bed that would be emblematic of their title challenge as a whole.
The following week, in a Scottish Cup tie at Ibrox, Rangers were absolutely dire and could hardly muster a meaningful shot on target as a 0-0 draw eventually saw Celtic win on penalties.
Against Hearts, Rohl has lost two of his three games at the helm. Against the other top-six teams — Hibs, Falkirk and Motherwell — the record is just as patchy; four wins, three draws and a defeat.
Striker Youssef Chermiti was the hero at Celtic Park as he scored a second-half double
It is also worth remembering that, even in the win at Parkhead in January, Rangers were abysmal for the first 45 minutes.
They were played off the park by a Celtic team under the guidance of Nancy and were lucky to only be 1-0 down at half-time, before coming back to win 3-1.
Rohl has often pointed out that Rangers were 13 points adrift when he arrived. He also inherited a shambles from Russell Martin. Both of those things are undeniably true.
But having clawed the gap back to two points when they beat Hearts 4-2 at Ibrox in February, a performance which remains the high-water mark of the Rohl era, Rangers are now seven points back once again.
Should Hearts win away at Motherwell tonight and Rangers lose at Parkhead, that gap would stretch into double digits at 10 points.
Or, to put it a little more bluntly, there would be scant difference in the final shake-up compared to when he first arrived.
Rohl was a popular figure among supporters not all that long ago. But, against one of the worst Celtic teams in history and a Hearts team with a vastly inferior budget, he will finish the season without a trophy.
Even if you were to give him the benefit of the doubt in the league in the sense that much of the damage had already been done, what about the cup competitions?
Rohl was knocked out of both by a 74-year-old Celtic manager who, for all his experience and standing in the game, has sounded like he barely knows the names of some of his players at times.
This is the precipice upon which the Rangers manager stands as he and his players head for Celtic Park tomorrow lunchtime.
Rangers may not have a title to win any more. That dream went up in smoke during a woeful second half at Tynecastle last Monday.
Rohl has been left with major questions to answer following Monday’s defeat to Hearts
But the manager has a point to prove. It already feels like he is running out of road as this season comes to a close.
Rohl spoke yesterday about how he remains fully committed to the job. Whether fans remain committed to him still being in charge next season is a different question.
If Rangers can win their last three games, they could still finish second. Clearly, that is not what they had in mind when they backed Rohl with £12million to spend in transfers in January.
But it would still be a damn sight better than third. Second place still offers them access into the Champions League qualifiers, whereas third will see them drop into the Europa Conference League.
One result alone cannot save a title bid. But it can define a manager’s credibility. Inflicting a mortal blow to Celtic’s title chances would be a small crumb of comfort in this most intoxicating of seasons.
For Rohl, that’s about as good as he can hope for as blue and green prepare to renew hostilities for the final time this campaign.
