Chris Sutton slams Rangers ‘Shambles’ after what he’s noticed at Ibrox
Chris Sutton has taken another jibe at Rangers after they fell 16 points behind Celtic in the Scottish Premiership title race.
Having sacked Philippe Clement in the wake of their shock home losses to Queen’s Park and St. Mirren in the Scottish Cup and Premiership respectively, Rangers made it three Ibrox defeats in a row on Saturday.
With Barry Ferguson and his interim team of Rangers legends now at the helm, Motherwell pitched up at Ibrox and raced into a 2-0 lead in the first half, seeing out a deserved 2-1 victory in the second period.
As a result, the Gers are now closer to third-placed Hibernian in the table than their Old Firm rivals, with Celtic coasting to a fourth successive crown, which will draw them level with Rangers on 55 league titles.
Chris Sutton lambasts ‘shambles’ at Rangers amid Ibrox unrest
Rangers slipping up in domestic fixtures – such as against St Mirren and Kilmarnock, let alone Queen’s Park – has been the root cause of their title race surrender, with most of these coming away from Ibrox.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live (2 March, 6:03pm), Chris Sutton assessed the gap between the Old Firm this season, and with fans becoming apathetic, he doesn’t expect things to improve any time soon.
Discussing their plight with a Rangers supporter, Sutton said: “This season, Celtic and Rangers are drawing in terms of head-to-head.
| Position | Team | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | GD | Points |
| 1 | Celtic | 29 | 24 | 3 | 2 | +70 | 75 |
| 2 | Rangers | 29 | 18 | 5 | 6 | +33 | 59 |
| 3 | Hibernian | 29 | 11 | 10 | 8 | +4 | 43 |
“It’s been Rangers’ inability to beat teams in the league which, in truth, fans expect them to beat, and that hasn’t happened. For Celtic to be 16 points clear at this stage, that’s a little bit of a shambles isn’t it.”
“You mention the atmosphere at Ibrox, how many fans are in the ground week in and week out – it’s as flat at anything, hence the change.”
Rangers ready to bring dismal season to an end
Other than on the continent – where Clement’s relative successes helped to mask his lack of domestic progress for far too long – Rangers’ season has been an abject failure, and leaves the club in stasis.
Their strong display in December’s League Cup Final – lost to Celtic on penalties in controversial fashion – certainly hasn’t been built on, with the Gers out of contention in both other domestic competitions.
Beating Celtic 3-0 in January promised to give them a platform to build on, but nine dropped points in four games either side of the derby left them further behind their Old Firm rivals than where they started.
Last month’s Scottish Cup loss to Queen’s Park at Ibrox also made history – for all the wrong reasons – as Clement and Rangers plumbed new depths, truly marking the beginning of the end of the Belgian.
With 49ers Enterprises set to come on board this summer and finally give Gers fans a fresh start to look forward to, there’ll be few who wouldn’t want to write off the last few months of the current campaign.