It’s safe to say Friday the 30th of August is not a quiet day in the life of Rangers. From a titanic draw in the Europa League, to the exit of Scott Wright and Deadline Day in general, to the upcoming Old Firm on Sunday, it’s definitely one of the more eventful 24 hours in recent times.

But in this piece, we’re concentrating on Sunday, because as things stand, we don’t know who will definitely get over the line on Friday:

We’re heavily linked with Jan Schöppner, a defensive midfielder of Heidenheim, Neraysho Kasanwirjo, a defender with Feyenoord and Nedim Bajrami, a playmaker from Sassuolo.

We will see who of these can be secured today (if any), but for now, it’s really all about Sunday, and our contention that this might be a bit of a make or break Old Firm already for Big Phil.

While we spun things more positively league-wise recently, with Celtic only 2 points ahead, and having scored just one more and conceded one less (that being an OG), if that changes to a 5-point gap with their having spent £11M on one player while Rangers can barely scrape £4M for a bunch of Bosmans and loans, it might just be the biggest pressure Philippe Clement has yet faced.

If he once more picks a dumbass XI, makes dim-witted subs, loses the match and decides to gaslight the referee yet again, for us another Celtic victory against us under this boss will arguably confirm definitively he’s not the right man to lead us forward.

The transfer window, aside Friday’s potential developments, hasn’t exactly yielded a fantastic overhaul – two players that fans like, in Barron and Cerny, one that’s a maybe in Propper, and thus far that is really about it. The rest have barely featured and haven’t added a lot.

And that’s when fans ‘judge him on his own players ffs’ and so far they’re basically quite crap. Not a soul in January impressed, and just barely 3 of 8 or so in the summer? 3 ‘successful’ additions of 11+?

So yes, this match this weekend is significant. Defining? Who was the last SPL Rangers manager to fail to win any of their first five Old Firm clashes? That’s Pedro territory and it was 3 losses before he was dumped.

Last time before that? We actually have to go back decades. Eck did go through a horrible 5 non win period in 2005 but that was later in his Gers tenure as the side deteriorated before his exit. He’d been an overall success.

This would be an unparalleled period of rot for Rangers in this fixture, for a new manager to fail abysmally against Celtic this badly.

And a lot of that will fall on the manager – because he’s the common denominator now, not the board, but Clement. The main board members have changed, aside Bennett, but the manager hasn’t.

Philippe Clement has been Rangers manager for 11 months, and there’s not a hint of progress, only regression.

He’s as bad currently as Pedro and Beale, if not actually worse, but gets a free pass from far too many fans who hold him on a pedestal and don’t hold him to account while blaming the board and players instead.

If he was to win on Sunday, they would feel infinitely vindicated.

And Ibrox Noise would be ruddy delighted.

Oh us on Ibrox Noise of little faith? Yes, in this manager, sadly. Prove us completely wrong.

We would love to get back onside and believe in our team again, but under this boss that’s proving difficult.