Clement has absolutely done one over on Rangers fans with AGM response
Philippe Clement pulled the wool over the eyes of Rangers fans at Thursday’s AGM at The Armadillo in Glasgow.
Had the date at the Clyde Auditorium been held just a couple of days prior to 5 December, or even a week earlier, there’s no doubt the atmosphere would have been a helluva lot different to what actually transpired.
There’s no getting away from the fact it’s been yet another tough year for Rangers and while Clement hasn’t yet sunk to the depths of Pedro Caixinha or Michael Beale, the Belgian had been on his way down there. He’s probably more in the Twilight Zone right now, rather than The Abyss reached by his aforementioned predecessors.
Clement’s not quite had a stay of execution but a 4-1 demolition away at OGC Nice in the Europa League, a narrow 1-0 win at St Johnstone and a 6-0 hammering of Kilmarnock at Ibrox not 24 hours before the AGM has helped the 50-year-old to avoid serious discussions about losing his job in Govan.
However, after just over a year in the job, he’s still not managed a win against Celtic, his side is 11 points behind Glasgow’s east enders and also four points adrift of second-placed Aberdeen. Not only that but watching Rangers has been an absolute eyesore at times.
Will Rangers sack Philippe Clement any time soon?
Before the AGM started on Thursday, the feeling was an odd one because you can’t go in there and absolutely tear a manager to shreds who’s just won three games on the bounce, with two of those wins being absolutely magnificent. But, at the same time, he’s underachieved, spoken absolute nonsense in press conferences, failed to arrest the slump that set in after the Europa League final in 2022 and failed to help the Gers fix their broken transfer practices.
If you were to give Clement a rating out of 10 right now, a four would probably be fair. He’s not quite in the middle with a 5/10 – he’s just on the wrong side of that.
But still, the Belgian managed to escape the wrath of Rangers fans at the Armadillo by pandering to what happy-clapping supporters love to hear.
“The legacy of Rangers is winning,” he said, as quoted by the Daily Record. “The day we lower that bar, Rangers is not Rangers anymore. That’s my message for the dressing room. That’s what the new guys need to learn.
“That’s what the older guys are in the dressing room for. They need to keep this culture in the club. So it’s true in football that a lot of things are decided by money.
“The more money you have, the more quality you can buy, the more quality you can get. But it’s also about hard work. It’s not only about money.
“We’re working with everybody really hard in the building to get these young talents and also the older players to gel together, to do the right things together, to create a better team.”
Clement’s answer to a rather testing question drew a round of applause from AGM-going fans.
Seriously, you’re falling for that?
It’s sycophantic, scripted nonsense that deflects from the real issues at the club.
Well done, Rangers do have a legacy of winning. So why aren’t your team, your players and your tactics able to achieve that on a consistent basis? Why is it that the club is behind Aberdeen in the league in December?
There are plenty of questions for Clement to answer but he’s been fed that from someone above him at the club or he’s spent the last month trying to write it himself – which would explain some of the performances.
If you were to write a list of all the people most at fault for Rangers’ issues within the last 24 months or so, starting with the most-at-fault at the top, Clement probably wouldn’t be in the top 10.
It’s unfair to pile on him but, at the same time, he really did a number on some of the fans at the AGM on Thursday by resorting to telling people what they want to hear instead of dishing out the actual truth.
Rangers do have a legacy of winning. But they could be at least a decade away from picking up where they left off in 2011.
In other Rangers news, the club has been accused of “degrading” one of Clement’s star players.
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