Philippe Clement still at risk of Rangers sack despite new contract after embarrassing summer
Rangers supporters will ensure Philippe Clement is sacked if he isn’t winning despite his surprise new contract, claims Chris Sutton.
The pundit spoke live on Sky Sports’ match coverage of the opening day trip to Hearts on 3 August to dismiss the Gers boss’ extension to 2028, confirmed a day earlier, as nothing more than a show of unity after an “embarrassing summer” that included the “shambles” of the Ibrox building work fiasco.
But the former Celtic striker insists that a poor result at Tynecastle, another Old Firm defeat on 1 September, and failure to reach the Champions League group stage and the new deal won’t mean anything.
Sutton said (11.50am): “They’ve put all their eggs in the Philippe Clement basket but I think with the shambles of having to play the games at Hampden that’s been an embarrassing summer for Rangers.
“This is now a show of togetherness and solidarity at the start of the season to say, ‘We’re all pulling in the right direction’. [But] poor start here today, lose against Celtic at the end of the month, lose in Europe and things will turn.
“The length of contract just does not matter because the punters’ll get him out anyway if they’re not doing well enough, hence as we saw last season with Michael Beale.”
Rangers sacked Michael Beale after poor start following rebuild
There is a limit to everything so if the situation is deteriorating rapidly another sacking couldn’t be entirely ruled out.
But there is clearly enough confidence in the Belgian at Ibrox to back him for the long haul right now, with the hierarchy having realised the damage Beale’s and Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s sackings have caused in the previous two campaigns.
As such there are no plans to remove Clement even if the campaign gets off to a bad start as things stand [The Herald, 27 July].
The Light Blues will hope that resolve isn’t tested by the new season following in the footsteps of last term where Beale lost the opener and barely improved from there after his own transfer rebuild.
The new contract may be as much an acknowledgement from the club that they have imposed an unenviable situation on Clement with the Ibrox mess and the fact that he is picking up the pieces in the transfer market from his two predecessors.
So it surely does strengthen his position, but there will be few under any illusions that his job is now safe regardless if there are major warning signs in the new campaign.
In other Rangers news, a Lawrence Shankland move to the Light Blues could be a “foregone conclusion” once this game is over.
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