Philippe Clement’s reaction to the Souttar penalty was ‘yet another’ howling barking dogs caravan Pedro moment as the Rangers manager gestured wildly to the media about why it’s not a penalty.
Let’s be clear – we barely saw a single Rangers fan anywhere, once the evidence appeared, deny it as a penalty. Souttar was caught, put his arm up and motioned into the ball to block it. Probably not a red card, but a clear pen.
Ergo Rangers’ barmy manager made a case for the defender as to why it wasn’t a penalty.
We don’t really know in truth, we stopped listening to the bulk of what this manager says some months ago – we report the content like a reliable outlet, but we’ve stopped absorbing his every word in the way we did when he arrived.
When he arrived it felt right, a big man, a great manager, a potentially-Walter-like aura of authority about him.
But as 56 faded and his composure went south too, Clement just started sounded like a unique mix of Beale and Pedro, with increasingly dumb comments, foolish quotes, and generally-misguided words to the press which demonstrated how out of his depth he actually is.
The more as an Old Firm manager that you protest or get animated, the more the press and the club have beaten you. Walter was never this way, Dick wasn’t, Eck wasn’t until the end when his press performances got more and more eccentric.
But Clement has been this way since 4 or 5 months into his tenure, and his batsh*t comments just get more and more bizarre.
He was a great manager for lower-pressure Genk and Brugges, no denying it. Big success there. But Monaco is a different animal and he was fired. Rangers are harder than Monaco and he’s making a dog’s dinner of it here too.
But Rangers signed him up till 2028 (the one big error from departed chairman John Bennett) and that be that. Man Utd are reportedly on the verge of dispensing with their version, will Rangers stick with Clement?