The shambles at Ibrox continued last night with Phil Clement making a bizarre statement about the absence and future of Todd Cantwell.
Over the course of three pre-season defeats the former Norwich City starlet hasn’t played a single minute despite being part of the squad that trained in Holland for a week.
After the defeat from Ajax Clement was pressed about James Tavernier and Cantwell missing the match, the Ibrox boss went into some detail about Tavernier’s injury and how close he was to playing.
Asked about Cantwell, Clement said it was small things with no further details given.
Clement made a sharp exit after the defeat from Manchester United on Saturday, with the claim put out that he was attending a wedding in Belgium!
Last night the pre-season misery continued with a 2-1 defeat away to Birmingham with the Belgian Beale back on media duties.
Over a standard seven minute conference questions were asked about Connor Goldson, Sam Lammers and James Tavernier with all three at various stages of getting out of Ibrox.
Nothing was mentioned about the absence of Cantwell, strangely rather than leaving it at that Clement was forced to return to the media room to comment on his Instagram influencer.
🚨 BREAKING: Watch as Rangers boss Philippe Clement returned to his press conference to reveal Todd Cantwell has submitted a transfer request. Full video ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/kJRlmdleXq
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) July 24, 2024
It was quite an oversight that no-one in the media conference asked about Cantwell, a year ago he was the future of the club after scoring in the celebrated dead-rubber victory over Celtic. The Cantwell comments are the headlines across every online outlet.
Very early it was obvious that Clement didn’t share the same level of admiration for Cantwell as the man that looked into his eyes and brought him to Ibrox alongside Nicky Raskin.
Presumably Clement was expecting to be asked about Cantwell but as is often the case around Ibrox the difficult questions were avoided.
With Micky Beale out of management it is difficult to imagine any manager putting their job on the line to accommodate a 26-year-old man child more interested in social media activity than actually doing their job.
Equally it is hard to see any dressing room indulging someone with a vastly bloated opinion of themselves who plays constantly to the gallery in a bid to create some sort of interest in a distinctly D-list celeb.
Jack Butland was also missing from last night’s squad.
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