This winter of discontent can’t all be blamed on Philippe Clement… the troubles at Rangers run deep and there will be no easy fix offered by Stewart’s three-month review
Patrick Stewart shouldn’t need up to three months and an army of consultants to establish why Rangers seem unable to get themselves out of a rut. A laptop and a decent WiFi signal should tell him pretty much all he needs to know.
Whatever reservations supporters may have about Philippe Clement’s tactical acumen and however questionable the chief executive’s qualified backing of his manager at the weekend, the Belgian’s task of turning around the club’s fortunes certainly isn’t easy.
He is, in many respects, paying a price for the past transgressions of others. Rangers’ current shortcomings on the field are at least partially reflective of years of poor judgments off it.
After winning promotion under Mark Warburton, the appointment of Steven Gerrard in 2018 gave rise to hope that the club’s elusive 55th title could soon become reality.
The former Liverpool captain finished nine points adrift of Celtic in his first season and was 13 points behind the Parkhead men when the Covid-19 pandemic saw season 2019-20 ended prematurely.
The Union Bears fans group make their feelings known at the game against St Johnstons
The Union Bears fans group make their feelings known at the game against St Johnstone
Clement has failed to get his Rangers side performing consistently this season
Clement has failed to get his Rangers side performing consistently this season
The Belgian manager is under pressure – and has a tough run of games coming up
The Belgian manager is under pressure – and has a tough run of games coming up
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We’ll never know if Gerrard would have survived the growing calls for his head had life as we knew it not been so rudely interrupted back then, but he remained in situ as football re-started in empty stadiums that August.
As Celtic veered from one disaster to the next, Rangers re-emerged from lockdown a different animal, ticking off the wins and setting a furious pace.
In the last days of the August transfer window, Lille tabled a bid of £16.25million for Alfredo Morelos. Leeds then offered £10m for Ryan Kent. No doubt sensing this could finally be their year, Rangers held onto both players.
History shows that they got the much-coveted 55 – impressively going the league season unbeaten – but the financial burden of doing so was ruinous and still lingers to this day.
Having posted a £15.9m loss up to June 2020, Rangers lost a further £23.5m in that title-winning year.
Long-suffering supporters who celebrated that championship were naturally not too concerned about the price tag. But those who should have been fixated with it let their hearts rule their heads.
Gerrard bolted to Aston Villa in November of the following season while grumbling about not being backed. The reality was the club was in above its neck.
While it did cut its cloth the following year, losing £2.2m in a season when it went all the way to the Europa League Final under Giovanni van Bronckhorst, losses of £4.1m and £17.2m have since been posted.
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Both Morelos and Kent walked out the door for nothing in 2023 and with them went Rangers’ hopes of building from a solid financial base.
Much of what we’ve seen since has been reactive rather than proactive, knee-jerk reactions and muddied thinking.
Van Bronckhorst was certainly struggling as 2022 drew to a close. Rangers were shipping point after point in the Premiership and had an unmitigated disaster in the Champions League.
Given the Dutchman had just taken the club to a European final, won the Scottish Cup and had only finished just four points behind Celtic, though, many felt he deserved a little more time.
When Michael Beale turned up at Ibrox for a game against Aberdeen as Van Bronckhorst was feeling the heat, someone on the Rangers board should have told him to take a good look at himself. Instead, they binned the incumbent and offered the Englishman his job.
Ross Wilson’s departure as sporting director the following April was another test of good governance. Allowing Beale to do both roles and handing him carte blanche in that summer’s transfer market was madness.
In came Kieran Dowell, Sam Lammers, Cyriel Dessers and Jose Cifuentes. Such was the directors’ indulgence of Beale that their wage bill soon topped that of Celtic’s. By October, however, that would not be his problem.
Clement was duly hired and admitted last summer that he hadn’t been made fully aware of the club’s financial predicament when he first put pen to paper. That also did not reflect well on those who hired him.
The gravity of the situation was laid bare at last year’s AGM with confirmation that five players – Connor Goldson, Todd Cantwell, Lammers, Scott Wright and Robby McCrorie – had departed the club for a combined transfer fee of £810,000 in the summer.
Some Rangers supporters staged a walkout during the victory on Sunday over St Johnstone
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Some Rangers supporters staged a walkout during the victory on Sunday over St Johnstone
Like a gambler desperately trying to cut their losses, that revelation summed up everything about Rangers in the past six years.
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Poor recruitment. Too few assets being sold when the time was right. Too many players contributing nothing other than clogging up the wage bill. A sustainable player trading model which can’t take root.
You can understand that lack of faith many supporters now have in the board. With revenue sitting at a record £94.2m, there is no excuse for the current malaise. The fact that Celtic are cantering towards 13th title in 14 years is squarely on them.
But where you can’t fault the directors is their personal financial commitment which presently stands at £22m in loans.
This sum, as much as anything, represents a huge barrier to the kind of regime change many fans would now like to see. The lack of interested parties prepared to buy out the board and operate under increasingly tight FFP restriction is another.
Clement is far from blameless in all of this. Quick to point towards Celtic’s financial advantage when it suits him, just three points taken from away games with lesser-resourced sides like St Mirren, Motherwell, Hibs and Dundee defeats his own argument.
With Celtic already a dot on the horizon in the Premiership this season, frankly, he was fortunate to get the vote of confidence from Stewart on Saturday.
But the many wider issues at the club – most caused by a lack of strategic thinking going back many seasons – are undeniable. They perhaps explain why many supporters in attendance against St Johnstone on Sunday were disinclined to join in with the walk-out protest instigated by two fans’ groups.
Another change of manager would certainly satisfy the bloodlust and may spark an uplift in results. Equally, as Stewart stated at the weekend, there’s no guarantee it would be a silver bullet.
Amid the ongoing acrimony and talk of further protests, Clement rolls on for now.
Rangers were always going to see off a struggling Saints side and should have just enough to beat an Aberdeen team that’s not won in 11 games on Wednesday. Provided their attitude is on point on Sunday, Fraserburgh in the Scottish Cup should present few difficulties.
It will be the away games which follow that decide if Clement sticks around for much longer. Rangers travel to face Manchester United, Dundee United, Hearts, Kilmarnock and Celtic before mid-March.
By that point, Stewart’s review should be complete but, more significantly, the season ticket renewals will be in the post.
If the Belgian hasn’t improved the team’s fortunes by then, he’ll be in need of a removal van.
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The end of winter might well signal the end of his time in Glasgow. But it may take rather longer for the discontentment around the club to lift.
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