Rangers, not for the first time in recent days/months/years (delete as applicable), are at a crossroads.
Guilty of woefully inadequate performances in the league, this is their worst start to a season since their first back in the top flight, when they were still readjusting to life back in the Premiership under Mark Warburton.
Philippe Clement, having lost just one of his opening 28 games as Rangers manager, has lost 10 of his last 36 games in charge which encapsulates the capitulation at the end of last season after turning round Celtic’s seven-point advantage, the insipid start to this campaign that meant no Champions League football and a whopping 11-point gap on league leaders Celtic, not to mention the eight points by which they trail Aberdeen.
I am struggling to find a Rangers supporter still making a case for Clement to be given more time. Were it not for Vaclav Cerny he might already be gone. Cerny and the Europa League form may be the difference between Rangers once again pulling the plug on a manager and deciding to persist with the Belgian’s project.
The manager’s position feels like the tip of the iceberg though, with boardroom upheaval and fan unrest pervasive throughout his year or so in charge. Those extenuating circumstances do not entirely excuse the Belgian’s inability to maintain the initial upturn in Rangers’ footballing fortunes, but they have to be considered when judging him.
I am still torn over the wisdom and practicalities of changing manager yet again. The expense involved (can Rangers afford to sack Clement or can they afford not to sack him is an interesting debate) not to mention the tumult that inevitably follows is massively unhelpful and though few Rangers fans appear to agree, I would suggest that a period of patience and the stability that might come with the new executive appointments would be more beneficial than starting from scratch once more.
I will get the chance to put some of these points to Clement at Wednesday’s pre-Nice news conference. Can he somehow eke out another impressive European performance from a group of players that, domestically, look bereft of ideas, verve, spark?
If so, and Rangers come away from the south of France with something to show for their efforts, then Clement will have bought himself more time – time in which he has to figure out why his team is under-performing so badly in the league.
