Andy Newport reacts to ‘Wild’ Rangers sack rumours he saw about Philippe Clement
Andy Newport believes Rangers fans are ready to see the back of Philippe Clement after the “wild” sack rumours that emerged regarding his Ibrox future over the weekend.
Rumours of the 50-year-old leaving the club by “mutual consent” were being shared across WhatsApp and other social media with a press briefing even mooted (Daily Record, 24 November).
Nothing ended up coming to fruition with the Daily Record shutting down the rumours.
But, speaking on the Daily Record’s Hotline Live (27 November), Newport said the rumours are typical of the general feeling of supporters towards Clement.
“I think most supporters have now made their minds up as far as the manager is concerned,” he said.
“This is a downturn that hasn’t just been this season, you can really stretch it bad to that Motherwell game in March when they were bang in contention to win the league title that they should really have no right to be winning given where they were at the start of the season when Philippe Clement came in.
“But the wheels just came off, they lose at home to Motherwell, then have that mental rollercoaster of an Old Firm game where they managed to battle back to salvage a draw.
“Then they go and have the two games against Ross County and away to Dundee and they throw away their shot of winning a title.
“Since then, things have just continued in this downward trajectory and I think most fans have decided that they won’t have him.
“We saw the wild social media rumours at the weekend but I think you saw once we were able to confirm that the manager wouldn’t be leaving his job that there was such a reaction from supporters thinking he should go.”
Philippe Clement doesn’t have long to save his job at Rangers
The Gers’ form this season has been well below where it was expected to be with the Ibrox outfit currently sitting third in the Scottish Premiership and 11 points adrift of league leaders, Celtic.
For what feels like the longest time, the future of the Belgian at Rangers has been brought into question due to the form his team have been in.
Their summer recruitment has mostly been full of failures, with only Vaclav Cerny and perhaps Connor Barron as the exceptions.
Indeed, we’re not yet halfway through the season but unless the Bhoys lose two or three games on the bounce or even just drop some points, it feels like Rangers can’t include themselves in the title race anymore.
It doesn’t feel like there’s much time left for Clement to try and save his managerial role at Ibrox but if he guides his team to another European win on Thursday against Nice, he could buy himself some more time.
In other Rangers news, a BBC journalist is torn over whether Philippe Clement should be sacked or not.
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