Ibrox Noise loves our stats, we definitely do, and a major stat being claimed online about Rangers is that we have exactly the same number of points in the table this season at this point as we did last season.

We did some digging.

And it is absolutely correct.

Rangers have 58 points after 24 matches, just like we did last season.

So, what can we draw from this. Well, on the face of it that would suggest there’s been no progress at all, purely in the data.

But there’s more to it of course.

The early portion of last season saw Giovanni as initial manager, winning 12 of 17, losing 2 and drawing three. 33 points. Michael Beale took over during that midseason break in early December.

Beale over the next 9 matches till the equivalent date today won 8 and drew 1. 25 points. That’s your 58.

This season however…

Beale started out with the first 8 matches – 5 wins, 3 losses. 15 points.

Had that continued it’s around 30 points by the point Gio got fired (17 matches in) the previous season.

But Gio v Beale re: season starts – Gio won 12 of 17, Beale won 5 of 8. A very similar rate.

What does all this mean? On the actual face of it, Michael Beale and Philippe Clement and Giovanni van Bronckhorst all had a significant impact on Rangers when they took over (always around October/November) and the improvement of all of them compared with ‘their’ predecessor was notable.

Beale won all bar one, of 8, and Clement has won all bar two of 16. Gio won 10, drew two, and lost one.

The difference? Angie. We hate to admit it but Celtic’s ex-manager kept on winning, he just didn’t cave under the pressure of Gio or Beale’s renaissance. Rodgers under Celtic facing Clement have absolutely crumbled.

However, there are caveats there. Angie didn’t have Europe in his first full season, which absolutely helped with momentum. And Gio did win the cup as well taking Celtic out on the way.

Clement is clearly a very, very seriously good manager. But he’s up against a manager who can’t handle the pressure of how good he is, while Angie was able to cope with the pressure of both Beale and Gio coming at him in the second half of those two seasons. Of course, in Gio’s case he had the small matter of Sevilla the whole second half of the season which was a big distraction. Interestingly Clement has the same ‘distraction’ this season.

Angie also had a tonne more cash than Clement has today.

There’s nothing we can really conclusively draw from these stats, quite honestly.

Clement is a great manager, and has consistently sustained that despite having European football. His only two blots away from absolute perfection were Aberdeen and Celtic away.

Rodgers was expected to sustain Angie’s Celtic machine, but has failed abysmally and now Rangers have a manager who can actually surpass (if he hasn’t already) what they have in the east. We do indeed have the same points now as we did after 24 matches last season.

But regardless of the numbers this time, we’re just glad we have Clement.