Rangers today announced Ibrox Noise’s preference for manager in Belgium’s Philippe Clement, who becomes the 19th boss of the Marble Staircase and comes with about as high a pedigree as Rangers could have dreamed of given the absolute shambles of the last ‘manager’.

Indeed, there could not be a bigger gulf between managers, between one who won a few matches at midtable QPR and was immediately vaunted as the next big thing, and one who won three titles in a row with two different and giant Belgian clubs not to mention the national cup.

Rangers have gone all-in here, they’ve spent big, gone ambitious, and while some negative fans (understandably) will fear a foreign manager ala Pedro or PLG, Clement’s track record is absolutely world class.

He’s an outstanding manager.

Now, are we saying 100% this guy will be a success and the answer to our problems? No, of course not, we don’t have a crystal ball and the world’s best managers have failed here and there. Even Pep’s time at Bayern wasn’t viewed as a mega success thanks to failure in the Champions League.

But he’s a top, top manager, a huge upgrade on the Mick and probably even better than Giovanni van Bronckhorst as a boss.

Many point at his ‘fail’ at Monaco – well, if a 50%+ win record after being thrown in the deep end at a midtable top 5 league club and given just one tiny January signing to work with and only missing out on Europe by a single place is a fail, we’ll take it. With hands tied, Clement nearly got Monaco into Europe in a top 5 league during a time when their stock was mega low. We’d take that fail every day.

And in Belgium he was a stunning success. Club Brugges’ incredible Champions League run of 22/23 was massively down to the groundwork he laid for the 3 seasons he was with them, and of course he’d already won the title with Genk.

The guy knows how to manage, and Rangers couldn’t have done any better.

Welcome to Rangers Philippe Clement.