This article has been a long time coming, and Ibrox Noise held off from publishing in light of then-new manager Philippe Clement’s no-nonsense reputation and promises as he joined the club.

Those promises were the same b*ll*cks that Steven Gerrard first offered when he became Rangers manager:

Any player, not up to scratch, not performing, not got the hunger, will not play for me.

Clement’s version was that he would give the players time to bed themselves in under him before he made any decisions on who to drop, who wasn’t living up to expectations.

Today’s update from the Belgian manager confirms that was a pile of tripe, whereby the ex-Genk boss now says 6 weeks isn’t enough to make a decision, and they will get till January. And beyond, if needed.

In other words, forget about the badly-needed wholesale changes, ruthlessly being made quickly, for once again a Rangers manager won’t make them.

And that’s the crux of the matter.

If Pep Guardiola took over at Rangers, we reckon Tav, Goldson, Barisic and a few other untouchables would have absolutely no issue keeping their places, because they just ‘do’.

And this is the baseline point.

We do not know why four managers in a row will simply not touch Tav, Goldson or Barisic.

Don’t spout that utter piffle about them clearly being good enough. If they were good enough, we’d have more than two trophies in 9 million years.

They are all substandard. Players of standard would be Hutton, Stevens, even Steven Whittaker compared with Tav. In the middle Cuellar, Weir, Bougherra, even this guy Souttar you might know. For Barisic, Arthur Numan, Sasa Papac, peak Lee Wallace were far more like what we expect.

But nope, Rangers just keep on wheezing on with the likes of Tav, Goldson and Barisic, not to mention the pathetic Ben Davies.

Tav, a Wigan reject, Goldson, a Brighton one, Davies a Preston drop out. Only Barisic had a slightly decent CV and he’s past it these days.

So the question is WHY are these players, certain players, completely immune and unaccountable no matter who the manager is?

Why do we have to tolerate substandard English League One players in our defence while a Scotland international, a Turkey international and an untried former Chelsea player don’t get a look in?

Not even Clement seems willing to make the changes.

Or maybe, simply put, he can’t…