Ibrox messengers hit back at Clement over his £11m spending spree

The Ibrox messengers have been sent out to discredit Phil Clement following his weekend comments about broken promises.

During the pre-season trip to Holland the former Monaco boss was asked if he was asked if during negotiations to replace Micky Beale he was made aware that he would be joining a club without piles of money in the bank.

Clement answered No. Then added that he had other expectations in October.

Nothing was lost in translation or taken out of context, Clement knew the question and gave an unusually direct answer.

Most managers would deflect around the issue, use phrases like ‘lots of moving parts’ without giving the game away that the war-chest is emptied with the promises of those October negotiations not delivered.

A traditional manager like Walter Smith or Alex McLeish would understand the script, keep problems in-house at all costs and you’ll always be looked after.

The Daily Record, Sun and Newsquest Group (Herald, Glasgow Times, Rangers Review) were present for the interview and gave a fair reflection of it in their Sunday edition.

The fall out has been huge, tolerance with John Bennett and the board is thin on the ground with Clement’s comments unleashing further anger.

The reaction from the club is underway through their favoured fan media messengers.

David Edgar explained that the comments have been taken out of context, on the Four Lads podcast Stevie Clifford went further by detailing the money that Clement has been given to spend.

17 minutes

Lets be absolutely honest, I think that everybody is quite annoyed at the moment about everything that has been going on, there’s zero tolerance for anything.

The first thing that everybody jumped on was the October line and it wasn’t quite how he thought, and immediately, they went to, you know the board has screwed him over, he thought that he was getting more money and whatever.

So there are a couple of things for context here.

The board has committed to spending £11m under Philippe Clement so far, that’s the first job so there has been money spent. There’s more money available, more players will come in.

Philippe Clement is a very literal guy. I’ve sat in front of him, you ask him something and he answers what you have asked him directly.

No one has been sold by Clement, January passed without shifting any players on, only a token fee from Kilmarnock for Robbie McCrorie has come in during the current window.

Of the £11m spent £9m of that was used on Mohamed Diomanse and Oscar Cortes, 10 SPFL clubs combined won’t spend a third of that sum this summer.

Both were in the building in January, made little impression when most bears were screaming out for Lawrence Shankland to be signed. Instead, Clement brought in Fabio Silva on loan from Wolves on incredible wages.

Clement broke out into dangerous territory with his weekend comments, as soon as results turn against him the messengers won’t be slow to remind fans that he has been well funded- and threw away the SPFL title by taking two points from three matches against Celtic, Ross County and Dundee in April.

QUESTION: Is it fair to say that your transfer plans are dependent somewhat on players leaving? You need to raise some funds?

PC: Yes that’s right, that’s the reality. That’s the reality that the board told me a few months ago. I know this, the recruitment team knows this also. This is the reality of the club.

QUESTION: That was the reality when you took the job with your eyes open to this fact? That this is not a club that is sitting with piles of money sitting in the bank.

PC: No. I had other expectations when I came in in October, but I know the reality now.PC: Yes that’s right, that’s the reality. That’s the reality that the board told me a few months ago. I know this, the recruitment team knows this also. This is the reality of the club.

QUESTION: That was the reality when you took the job with your eyes open to this fact? That this is not a club that is sitting with piles of money sitting in the bank.

PC: No. I had other expectations when I came in in October, but I know the reality now.