Three damaging Rangers player quotes for Philippe Clement

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Three damaging Rangers player quotes for Philippe Clement
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - AUGUST 13: Rangers manager Philippe Clement is seen during the UEFA Champions League Third Qualifying Round 2nd Leg match between Rangers and Dynamo Kyiv at Hampden Park on August 13, 2024 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Cast your mind back to late last season, and Dujon Sterling’s comments on Rangers’ latest bad result (at Dingwall) under Philippe Clement:

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“We’ve been s*** the past few games. We’re fighting for a title but the way we’re playing… it’s like the season’s dead. I don’t know if the belief is there”

Cast your mind back to Leon Balogun doing much the same preseason then post-Killie:

“The supporters really give their all to support us everywhere, near and far. But it comes with something. You can’t just take that for granted. I’m not saying anyone does. But you have to know that if you don’t deliver, it can be uncomfortable. And you have to try to live up to their expectations as much as you can. It’s not always reasonable what you then receive. I’m not for abuse of any sorts. But the criticism that comes up after a day like that, I think you have to face it. For me personally, and I can only speak for myself, I’ve been in many situations, worse situations than that, a lot worse. And like I said, you have to understand them. You have to understand what this club stands for, the history of the club. If you sign for this club, you have to know that there’s a lot of expectation. And if you don’t live up to that expectation, there might be really uncomfortable moments. And like I said, you won’t always think it’s reasonable, but you have to understand it. And you just have to get on with it, that’s what I’m trying to say.”

And then there’s Jack Butland post-Lyon:

“It’s one of those you wish you could do it over again because I think we’d have a…you hate to say it but I think there’s a different approach that we needed or there wasn’t enough quite from us in those moments to cut out the attack, make a foul, stop them getting in their stride.”

So three players, all willing to publicly criticise the team, the manager or the tactics.

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Two of those players have only been sparingly used since those comments, and of course Philippe Clement rebutted Sterling in particular by using an ex-Celtic player as an example:

“Nick (Thomson) has just told me because I don’t read everything. It’s words of a player who is disappointed because we lost points, who maybe lacks a little bit of experience in that way. If I see Virgil van Dijk giving a press interview yesterday after the game it is totally different and that’s the way it should be. Those are things for young players to learn and become better in that it is more talking out of the frustration.”

And of course, Sterling at 24 lacks ‘experience’.

It points to a deeply, deeply dysfunctional dressing room, a squad that doesn’t believe in the manager at all, and a regime that is completely sinking.

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That over the past 3 months three players have seen fit to strongly criticise the team or the manager tells you something is not right with this manager and the ship he is running.

While some fans could blame the board or the players, that players are actively attacking the system/team/manager is not a good look.

And Clement, aside Butland, appears to have removed those offenders from the front lines rather effectively…

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