Ally McCoist has wondered into an uncomfortable truth as angry bears assess the impact that Philippe Clement will have at their club.
The track record of the former Monaco boss is being assessed, the merits of his play-off title wins in Belgium and the reasons for his sacking from the current Lique 1 leaders.
All that is well and good if Clement was moving in to a fairly stable club but the Ibrox Tribute Act are about as far removed from that description as it is possible to get.
With Neil McCann, Kenny Miller and Kevin Thomson constantly banging on about huge expectations, a winning mentality and other garbage the delusions of supporters get bigger by the week.
Micky Beale fed into that then found things had got out of hand when his disastrous recruitment brought back-to-back defeats from PSV Eindhoven and Celtic coupled with a dull, drab and uninspiring style of play.
Across the city the sneering that McCoist and others had for a guy whose name they couldn’t pronounce two years ago backfired spectacularly. Not only did Ange Postecoglou pile up the trophies but it was under an exciting, attacking brand of football which compared unfavourably with the fare being served up by Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Beale.
Postecoglou’s legacy is reflected in the third successive autumn search for a manager at Ibrox to try and get something out of two failed Revolutions that has lumbered the club with a massive squad of underachievers on long term contracts.
The issues are so obvious even McCoist noticed them, listening to TalkSPORT this morning the Daily Record reports the cheeky chappy saying:
Do you know the problem, the big problem? No matter who comes in they are going to have to take over a squad where the recruitment, quite frankly, hasn’t been good enough. They are going to have the same players, I am not imagining they will be allowed to get anyone in until at least the window.
It will depend on how much they are given because the previous manager was given a few quid to spend to go and get players
There is still a core of serial losers for Clement to inherit as well as two summers worth of disastrous recruitment.
From the 2022 intake the new boss will find Ben Davies, Rabbi Matondo and Ridvan Yilmaz on lucrative deals, topped up by Sam Lammers, Cyriel Dessers and Danilo while a scattering of free agents aren’t at Murray Park for the weather or playing golf.
When the final interviews are held the lucky candidate will no doubt be looking to be able the same sort of contracts to entice players as the deals offered to Kemar Roofe and John Lundstram.
If McCoist can see the issues it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if Clement and Kevin Muscat slipped out the picture just like Graham Potter and Frank Lampard.
