Just when you thought Monday night could not have got any worse for Danny Rohl, he walked into the media room at Tynecastle, took his seat on the podium and cleared his throat.
Having presided over an abomination of a second-half performance, it was incumbent on the Rangers manager to take ownership of the situation.
His words of explanation were every bit as unconvincing as the 45 minutes which all-but ended his side’s chances of winning the title. ‘Second half, this is football,’ he meekly offered.
He then added of the dramatic turnaround: ‘We knew they would come with power and they did. They played much, much more directly in behind and we had less pressure on the ball.
‘Hearts did Hearts things. They dominated the second half with Hearts football. This is what we expected.’
This was quite the admission. Having seen the home side subdued in the first half, Rohl warned his players that their opponents would come out with all guns blazing.
Rangers boss Danny Rohl and skipper James Tavernier are floored after defeat at Tynecastle
Lawrence Shankland fires the winner past Rangers goalkeeper Jack Butland
Rangers boss Rohl cuts an anguished figure as his side crumbled in the second half
Why, then, did they spend the second period of a season-defining match wandering around in a trance? Did he not get his message across or were they simply not listening?
As is his wont, Rohl bristled when the subject of his players’ mentality was raised.
It surfaced after they drew at Fir Park against 10-man Motherwell, following the 2-2 draw with bottom side Livingston and when they squandered a two-goal lead against Celtic.
There are now horrific back-to-back defeats to Motherwell and Hearts in the post-split fixtures to add to the list. The question is only asked of the manager because he and his players never put it to bed.
They are demonstrably mentally weak. Incapable of playing for 90 minutes. That’s on them, of course.
It is, however, literally the job of a football manager to instil an iron will and unshakable confidence in his players. And there’s scant evidence that this is the German’s strong suit.
It was not a good night for those who have championed his tactical acumen either.
Within seconds of replacing Islam Chesnokov with Blair Spittal and changing shape at the interval, it was obvious that Derek McInnes had made a shrewd move to wrestle back control of the game.
For reasons only he could adequately explain, Rohl waited until the 69th minute before responding, switching the again anonymous Andreas Skov Olsen for Djeidi Gassama.
By then, though, Hearts had levelled through Stephen Kingsley and were hunting the second which duly arrived from the boot of Lawrence Shankland.
From Rangers supporters’ point of view, the accident had been waiting to happen for some time. But rather than taking a preventative course of action, Rohl crossed his fingers and hoped for the best.
He was schooled by McInnes in the same way that he’d been schooled by Jens Berthel Askou at Ibrox eight days previously. This isn’t a manager who looks like he’s learning on the job.
Many of those who have scattered rose petals in the path of the former Sheffield Wednesday boss across the past seven months appear to have done so because Rohl was not Russell Martin. As compliments go, that’s decidedly dubious.
Stephen Kingsley celebrates scoring the equaliser for Hearts as they battled back to win
The fact is that Rangers were at such a low ebb when Martin was sacked – eight points from a possible 21 – that some degree of improvement was inevitable.
Rohl, to give him his dues, did oversee an upturn in results. Rangers won four league games on the bounce before Christmas and six on the spin after it.
Amid all the praise, there was a curious reluctance to overlook a loss to Celtic in the League Cup semi-final.
While Rangers had already lost twice in the Europa League at the point where he took charge, he also claimed just one win in six games against Ludogorets.
The mitigating argument that Rohl was only working with the squad Martin expensively put together ceased to hold water come January.
Having implored the club’s hierarchy to ‘take opportunities in the market,’ he was backed to the tune of £10million that month. In came Ryan Naderi, Tuur Rommens and Tochi Chukwuani on permanent deals. Skov Olsen arrived on loan from Wolfsburg on the basis that he’d be the difference maker.
A win at Celtic Park on January 3 left Rohl purring over the improvement in the side which he’d overseen. This was always overblown.
The edifice started crumbling with a goalless draw at Easter Road on February 1. From that point on, even when they won, more often than not, they lost goals.
In 11 Premiership matches from that day, the only clean sheet to be chalked up came at St Mirren. Six were shipped in the wins over Aberdeen, Dundee United and Falkirk. The assumption was that this would be addressed in the warm weather training camp in Spain. Not so.
With a further five goals lost in catastrophic defeats to Motherwell and Hearts, Rangers’ title challenge is as good as over and Rohl’s once lofty reputation among the fanbase has tanked.
For supporters of the club, it must feel like they’re caught in a never-ending cycle of hope and despair.
Since Steven Gerrard left in 2021, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, Michael Beale and Philippe Clement have arrived, improved matters initially then flatlined before being shown the door.
Rohl tries to get his message across to his Rangers players on the touchline
The issue clearly runs deeper than the individual sitting in the manager’s chair. After a multitude of clear-outs and rebuilds, Rangers are still devoid of winners. That’s abundantly clear.
Barring a miracle by the time this campaign ends, just three major trophies will have been won in the decade since they returned to the topflight. That’s a diabolical return for the money that’s been spent.
The problem for Rohl is that the story, as far as the American owners are concerned, only starts at the point where they came in a year ago.
They’ll have no concern about the relentless churn of managers because it didn’t happen on their watch.
Appointing Martin as their first act was an atrocious decision, but there was no concern that dismissing him would suggest that the new people in charge at Ibrox lacked patience. They made a mistake. They could not compound it by failing to act when they did.
Football can often be a brutal old business. But just because a manager isn’t in a post for long isn’t to say he necessarily deserves more time.
Think Wilfried Nancy at Celtic and Liam Rosenior at Chelsea, respectively sacked after 33 and 106 days.
When you know, you just know. Length of service doesn’t come into it when you realise it’s all going nowhere.
Seven months on, it’s legitimate to question where Rangers are now going under Rohl.
Under him, the side have gone out of both domestic cups to Celtic and made no appreciable impact in Europe.
Two weeks after supporters and those in the plush seats were licking their lips at the prospect of the title and earning £40m through direct entry to the Champions League, they’re sitting a distant third and contemplating the possibility of Conference League qualifiers.
Serenaded by Rangers fans at the turn of the year, Rohl now looks increasingly vulnerable as the summer approaches.
As so many of his predecessors will attest, when the rank and file have seen enough, the die is cast.
