Phil Clement has been blaming everyone but himself for his failure at Ibrox.
In sixteen months in charge there was no sign of improvement in any area of the club as another Ibrox Revolution buckled under pressure.
Clement replaced Micky Beale in autumn 2023 with Celtic seven points clear in the SPFL title race.
Despite that lead Celtic were in a fragile place, the horrendous recruitment of Mark Lawwell left Brendan Rodgers leaning heavily on the players signed by Ange Postecoglou in his first two transfer windows at the club
Jota and Carl Starfelt were sold with the three wingers and two central defenders brought in by Lawwell quickly being found out as way short of the standard required.
Cameron Carter-Vickers was unrecognisable until the final stint of the season, Reo Hatate started just 12 SPFL Premiership matches while Callum McGregor missed the whole of March through injury to compound a number of issues.
With James Tavernier hitting freakishly good numbers while Celtic lost back-to-back matches to Kilmarnock and Hearts the tide was turning with Clement’s side hitting top spot in March
After a 3-3 moral victory over Celtic at the start of April Clement led his players on a triumphant lap of honour- that proved to be the beginning of the end for the Belgian waffler that had the Scottish media claiming that he was A Proper Football Manager simply for not being Beale.
Early in the BBC interview Clement claims:
It’s a pity that the story stopped, that the board didn’t have the patience, or maybe listened too much to some fans.
There are other clubs where there is a difficult moment and everybody sticks together because everybody knows the story, how the work is done inside the building, and they continue and they are successful afterwards.
In three or four windows, we could have closed the gap [to Celtic] with a good development of players, but the decision is made and you need to accept it.
BBC Scotland caught up with Clement at the end of last week. The excuses and deflection tactics are still in full flow as they reported:
A home defeat by Motherwell. A first-ever loss to Ross County. Then a draw at Dundee.
Celtic never looked back after that as Rangers’ mentality and inability to break teams down began to be questioned.
“I don’t agree with that,” Clement says of the latter criticism. “In moments, it was really good, but in moments not.
“It’s more a story about consistency, about having the demand – physically and mentally – to be ready for that every three days.
“In the end, the squad was not ready. There were too many players who had never done this before.”
Clement also bridles at suggestion mentality was an issue.
Mentioning the slip-ups against County and Dundee, he points out that “two players who were not good in those games” left at the end of the season and were perhaps distracted by discussions with other clubs at the time.
“It was never about not wanting to win, not wanting to work,” he adds. “For sure, they wanted to become champions and they wanted to give everything.”
John Lundstram and Borna Barisic are the two players that go un-named in the interview, both joined Tabzonspor last summer.
Any proper manager knows that it is a risky business selecting players who will soon be out of contract.
Clement discussed their contracts in the media, with the first blast of austerity on the way they were never going to be offered terms similar to the deals that they were on.
The Belgian Beale continued to pick then, hard man Lundstram showed what a liability he was with an own goal and a red card against Celtic in his last ever SPFL Premiership match.
Clement was finally sacked after losing back to back matches at home to Queens Park and St Mirren.
After flopping at Monaco and Ibrox it looks like Clement’s next job will be back in Belgian football, bleating about the failings of others while he leads a celebration bouncy after beating St Johnstone highlights just why he isn’t a Proper Football Manager.
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