Rangers manager Philippe Clement is seen at full time during the SPL | Premier League match between Rangers FC and St. Johnstone FC at Ibrox Stadiu…Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images
Rangers fans face uncomfortable Philippe Clement truth after years of regression
When Steven Gerrard urged Rangers ‘to fix the roof whilst the sun was still shining’, few would’ve imagined Philippe Clement at the club’s helm three years later.
But after chronic mismanagement and some excruciating short-sightedness, Rangers find themselves back to a place not too unfamiliar from when Stevie G took over.
Now, Philippe Clement is tasked with steering a youthful Rangers team into a new era where the club follow the successful player trading model of clubs of similar sizes across Europe, including Old Firm rivals Celtic.
It’s a path which Rangers have long spoken about taking but always dithered over really embracing.
As the scrutiny increases on Clement and his new Rangers team, both of whom are very much in the first steps of a new, long-term project, the pressure is rising.
But amid plenty of frustrated chatter surrounding the manager’s future, Rangers fans need to accept that Philippe Clement is right and back the Belgian through a stormy sea.
At least that’s if they want to see brighter days on the horizon.
READ MORE: Clement tells fans major ‘reason’ why Rangers lost to Kilmarnock
Rangers manager Philippe Clement is seen during the SPL | Premier League match between Rangers FC and St. Johnstone FC at Ibrox Stadium on October …
Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images
Philippe Clement is long-awaited shot at Ibrox ‘stability’
Since Gerrard’s sacking there has been constant upheaval at Rangers in every sense of the word, except from the on the pitch.
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The Ibrox side had a glorious opportunity to kickstart their playing trading ambitions but slept on interest in key players at their apex and for the last two summers have been releasing them for nothing.
Gerrard had his role to play in that, but Giovanni van Bronckhorst in particular suffered from an insistence of holding on to Stevie G’s old guard.
Ironically, Michael Beale was brought back to Rangers because of his familiarity with a team in clear regression, only to be given £21m to tear it up last summer.
It did not go well.
Philippe Clement almost did what many viewed as impossible in one last hurrah last season.
The squad was then ripped up in a way which could’ve been handled more constructively in the seasons previously.
Now hoping to bed in a number of young players who could have big futures, signed with the help of talented ex-PSV recruitment guru Nils Koppen, whilst Clement is one year in the building it really is just the start of a new project in Glasgow.
Speaking about the need for stability as a result, Clement is clear that sticking down this path is the ‘only way’ to guarantee Rangers return to their historic levels of post-2012 consistency.
This isn’t about winning one title, but competing for and winning most of them.
“(Stability) is the only way,” Clement told reporters head of the Europa League clash with FCSB. “But it’s also not the only way here.
“It’s the only way in clubs all over Europe and all over the world. If you change ideas every three months, every six months or every year, of course there’s no consistency in the club.
“You need to follow one track, one process, that everybody keeps on going in the same direction otherwise you will always have ups and downs.
“If you go in the emotion of the day or one result or two results, then you can never create consistency.
“I’m throwing myself on all those things because I engaged myself in that way, because I believe so much in the potential of this club and to bring it back where it was before.”
Rangers fans must buy into manager’s Ibrox vision
As part of that, Rangers fans really are going to have to bite the bullet.
The Ibrox board have finally accepted what were years of corporate failure and poor squad management, not to mention a terrible injury record and questionable use of transfer funds.
In the post-Covid recovery of the 55 title-winning campaign, Douglas Park and co hesitated on the investment Gerrard desired because they gambled on a shambolic Celtic failing to get their act together.
It backfired horrendously.
Instead Celtic built an aggressive, all-conquering side under Ange Postecoglou and have since enjoyed three back-to-back Champions League qualifications, gained in no small part due to our quite remarkable consistency in Europe.
The expectations of Rangers fans are huge and that will not change, but there is a distinct lack of realism in the notion that after such an overhaul we can compete immediately with what is clearly a financially superior and more stable rival.
There are going to be teething issues, something made harder by Aberdeen’s impressive start under Jimmy Thelin, but Ibrox fans must adopt their expectations to the circumstances of the season.
Even if it hurts.
Sacking Philippe Clement puts the club back to square one. It’s not so much shooting oneself in the foot as it is pushing self destruct at Ibrox.
The problems are apparent and Rangers patently lack confidence. Clement has bit back at criticisms over his style by pointing to a lack of player responsibility numerous times.
When it’s all going wrong, it’s easy to blame the manager. Sounds from the Ibrox dressing room suggest players have taken a degree of comfort in this yearly autumnal malaise as a result.
The Kilmarnock result will happen again – very likely this season – as will other bumps in the road which anger fans who’re coming to terms with Celtic usurping their historic dominance.
But there will be shoots of progress as Rangers implement a bolder and braver approach to signing players, selling them, and playing them young.
The Rangers players have to buy into what Philippe Clement is doing as much as we do and there has got to be a general acceptance that the Belgian is the main driving force for good at the club at present.
Why? Because given the utter chaos and mismanagement of the last three seasons, we have little choice.
“Of course fans are not happy now,” said Clement. “And you guys and we talked a lot about that.
“All the circumstances, sportive (and) non sportive, of the last couple of months.
“They are not happy after the last results. They were happy after Malmo for example, so it goes up and down.
“It’s about creating consistency again, creating momentum again with all the squad, all the results.
“We spoke about, and I don’t want to repeat it too much, about a big rebuild in many ways.
“With cutting wages to make the club sustainable, for now and for the future, because there were decisions made in the past before the time I was here.
“I stepped in that story after long talks for the long term, also to making long-term decisions, together with the board, towards that, for the future.
“We are working really hard with the players, everybody and the staff, to make it as fast as possible back to that level the club was 12, 15 years ago.
“Or in moments in the last couple of years. Never over a long period. So that takes time and we’re going to work hard on that.
“It’s a process you need to follow.”
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