Clement sack latest – how close is Rangers’ boss to the chop

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Clement sack latest – how close is Rangers’ boss to the chop
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - OCTOBER 24: Rangers manager Phillipe Clement is seen during the UEFA Europa League 2024/25 League Phase MD3 match between Rangers FC and Fotbal Club FCSB at Ibrox Stadium on October 24, 2024 in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Ibrox Noise is aware that another ‘Rangers’ site has been shoving the word ‘sack’ in pretty much every headline regarding manager Philippe Clement recently, as an easy way we guess of driving traffic.

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With the current boss certainly under pressure following the farce up north, it’s a simple way to attract punters to your content, with the big dramatic ‘sack’ word in just about every headline. We guess, admittedly, that we’re guilty of the same with our headline, but then how many other ways can you put ‘sack’ in this context!

And in fairness, Clement has never been closer to losing his job than he is right now – his popularity with fans is now completely non-existent, with many misguided souls completely backing him up till the most recent Old Firm match, an Ibrox Noise poll demonstrated the 90%+ believing in him up till that point.

That dropped after that loss, to around 76%, and nowadays, following the Killie and Aberdeen loss, it’s completely crashed to about 10%.

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Clement is now deeply unpopular, with most Rangers posts greeted by hostile replies from fans demanding he leaves.

So, how much of this malaise really is his fault?

A lot of fans still pin it on ‘the board’, and Ibrox Noise are no big fans of the suits now either, especially given the only two we liked, James Bisgrove and John Bennett, have moved on.

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But this current board did not appoint Clement, and while some of the non-execs did advise during the recruitment process, Rangers have had such a turnover of board members it’s extremely hard to know who is even who any more.

Graeme Park is many fans’ target these days, because he represents an era the support wants rid of, in the Park dynasty. In truth, Ibrox Noise agrees there, the Park family should bow out of Rangers now, but unfortunately Park senior still uses the club for his own business interests. This is something else Ibrox Noise called out during the cinch fiasco, but back then fans supported everything and anything Park did. Ah, changed times!

But this gets away from Clement’s basic failings. As much as we can blame the board for this and that, Clement still got £16M this summer and did very little with it, along with his new mate Nils Koppen.

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These guys signed players like Silva, Diomande, Igamane, Nsiala, Propper, Jefte and a few others – these guys have not worked out at all, save for some fans thinking Jefte hasn’t been as rubbish as we feared.

The successes? Barron, Cerny, Kasanwirjo (maybe) and Bajrami (probably).

That four players of 11 have actually maybe worked out, albeit Liam Kelly has been ignored as expected, is a damning indictment of recruitment.

But then there’s the management itself. Weird team selections, bad subs, poor tactics, directionless football, soulless structure and his utterly absurd comments in the press have led very much in part to Rangers’ decline.

Clement, staggeringly, has been worse for Rangers than Michael Beale was.

But in realism, sacking him is hard, and not just the cost.

Rangers don’t want to be going through so many managers – we’ve had a conveyer belt of bosses since 2011, more since then than our entire history. It’s been absurd.

But then we’ve been (mostly) appointing the wrong bosses. We only got two right – Gerrard and Gio. And we didn’t support them properly – Gerrard yes, up till after 55 then it stopped and he left, Gio never at all. We gave him Aaron Ramsey and Maciej Zukowski!

So what do you do – sack another and hope you finally get it right and support the right one?

Rangers really are in a quandary now – there appears to be no obvious plan forward, and if there is one, it’s very much not pleasing supporters and is a ‘long game’ risk.

For now, Clement holds his job, but even if we end up out the cup on Sunday, we’re not sure he’ll be relieved of his duties.

After those financial losses in the accounts (we’ll have a report soon on that) we just don’t think we can afford to.

This is why we need the man to resign.

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