What have the last 4 matches done for Philippe Clement? 4 wins in a row, one goal conceded and 10 scored appears to hint at a small change in fortune for the under-pressure Rangers manager, but we are very troubled by Andrew Smith of the Scotsman calling it ‘death row’ on PLZ soccer recently.

It’s one thing saying Clement is close to being sacked, which he has been for many months, without the finance for Rangers to actually seal that deal, it’s quite another to compare his plight with that of prisoners who are about to die.

He said:

“Because of that, I always think of where Clement finds himself. To me, it’s the old football manager’s death row. Every game that you step onto the pitch, that’s your appeal. That’s your appeal to the authorities not to flick the switch on the electric chair. And it never ends. It ends—it’s just a question. There’s people sitting on death row for like 15 months or 15 years in America. What you get here, it’s 15 days. For me, normally, like, I’ve seen so many managers. They say, “No, we support the manager. We’ll back the manager.” And within three weeks, if they haven’t won every single game, it just—the intensity of the position becomes untenable. It becomes a point where you have to make the decision. You have to—you saw it with Celtic and Neil Lennon that season. You saw—you’re a stay of execution, a stay of execution.”

There’s two takes here:

One is that the more the press yells loudly about Clement being sacked, especially during good results, the more those making those headlines are disliking Rangers’ better results of late.

Secondly, that it’s a pretty dire and gutter comparison, to trivialise such a grim place in America (and elsewhere) by comparing being a football manager to waiting on a lethal injection.

It’s pretty poor to say the least, and Smith really milks that metaphor.

Not idea at all.