Rangers: Chris Sutton reacts as Todd Cantwell axed at Ibrox
Chris Sutton has praised Philippe Clement for axing Todd Cantwell at half time in Rangers’ 1-1 draw with Aris at Ibrox on Thursday night.
Rangers fans seemed to boo Clement’s decision to take Cantwell, 25, off after just 36 minutes.
Ross McCausland replaced the Englishman and went on to score Rangers’ equaliser to keep them within a shot of reaching the Europa League knock-out stage.
Sutton is impressed by the work Clement has done so far and has backed the Belgian to close down the gap to Celtic in the Scottish Premiership if he can get his hands on the Scottish League Cup later this month.
“Don’t get me wrong. Rangers’ poor showing against Aris Limassol shows they still have a way to go, but winning the League Cup would give Philippe Clement’s side a major shot of belief and added drive to try and overhaul a deficit in the table. Just as it did for Ange Postecoglou’s team in the Aussie’s first season when they came back from a similar position as now to win it,” Sutton said on the Daily Record website on Saturday (2 December).
“Clement is saying all the right things, just as Postecoglou did. And making big calls, as we saw with Todd Cantwell on Thursday night. Celtic need to stand on the pedal, get moving and strike fear into sides again.”
Feud or level-headed?
Sutton’s social media feud with Cantwell is well reported.
Both of them love to stir the pot but one of them is a pundit who’s well known in Scottish football for being a bit of a melt. While the other is a professional footballer who actually has better things to do than arguing with a shock jock.
Cantwell has shown his true colours at Rangers, sadly.
He’s shown that he can cheat in matches in order to win an advantage that he doesn’t need and he’s also bit at people on social media.
The midfielder comes across as childish, which makes it no surprise that he didn’t reach the potential that was expected of him while at Norwich.
Clement was right to hook him in the first half against Aris. He wasn’t playing well and McCausland has been our best player in the last month or so with the youngster going on to grab the all-important equaliser.
But Rangers should be beating Aris easily and Cantwell should be putting in man-of-the-match displays against them if he’s as good as he clearly thinks he is.
Sutton is wrong about a lot of things but we suspect he’s right about Cantwell.
In other Rangers news, it’s a done deal as the Gers reach an agreement for an early-January arrival.