Philippe Clement called out after what he has done at Rangers
Michael Stewart has questioned Philippe Clement over his judgement on certain Rangers players this season at Ibrox.
The likes of Hamza Igamane, Ianis Hagi and Clinton Nsiala have starred for the Gers lately but featured sporadically, if at all in the first half of the season.
The Govan outfit seem to have turned a corner lately, winning six of their last seven matches and reaching the last 16 of the Europa League.
Speaking on the Scottish Football Social Club (3 February), Stewart said: “It makes me wonder about his judgement because Igamane, Nsiala and Hagi, three guys that were nowhere to be seen.
“Two of them not in the European squad and you’re going ‘these guys are making the team better’.
“Some poor decisions that the team suffered for in the first part of the campaign.”
Clement paying for early-season Rangers decisions?
The Belgian manager was under severe pressure at Ibrox for a significant period in the early stages of the season and it seemed like a matter of time before he was dismissed.
Despite his side being ten points adrift of Celtic in the Scottish Premiership, Clement seems to have eased the scrutiny on his future in recent weeks with a flurry of positive results.
The emergency of Hagi, Igamane and Nsiala has definitely helped the Bears but it is impossible to know how they would have performed had they been thrown into the deep end before they were ready in the case of the latter two.
Some players step up and take to the challenge but others crumble under the pressure so blaming Clement for being late to the party with their selections is not entirely fair.
Had he placed them in the starting line-up too early they may not have had the same impact as they are having right now.
In other Rangers news, a promising striker left Ibrox in a deadline-busting deal on Thursday.
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