‘Sack the board’ ‘in a bigger mess than we think’ ‘end the season now’ Ibrox fans react to Clement confession

Phil Clement sent Ibrox fans further into despair with his transfer comments made to the Sunday papers.

Admitting that any new signings is dependent on getting rid of serial losers is one thing but adding that he had been sold a very different outlook from the Directos when discussing the job has turned up the level of anger against the Ibrox board.

Chairman John Bennett has been the target of anger over the closure of Ibrox and how that has been handled but the comments from Clement has turned the heat up even further.

Fortunately for the Executive Chairman he lives in Essex which steers him clear of rank and file supporters, only Douglas Park of the current board is based in Scotland with the car dealer taking a back seat in 2023 after three years as Chairman.

It had always been suspected that funds were tight for Clement’s expected rebuild but the way that the Belgian spoke hinted towards a fire sale coming up to try and rid the club of overpaid and under performing players.

Under Giovanni van Bronckhorst Ben Davies, Tom Lawrence, Rabbi Matondo and Ridvan Yilmaz were added to the wage bill, topped up by Micky Beale who brought Todd Cantwell, Nicky Raskin, Kieran Dowell, Sam Lammers, Danilo and Cyriel Dessers to the club.

Given a clean slate Clement would probably get rid of all of those signings, the problem is that no other club is prepared to match their current wages never mind shell out a transfer fee for damaged goods.

For added impact James Tavernier and Connor Goldson were given lucrative four year contracts in the summer of 2022 despite no record of any transfer interest in either player.

It is a prime example of disastrous recruitment and squad management- on another level to the carnage that Mark Lawwell brought to Celtic during three windows in charge of transfer activity.

Clement’s comments run parallel to the drip feeding news that Ibrox is unlikely to be open again this year, possibly this season.

Leaking the bad news to favoured media partners hasn’t gone down well with fans that paid out £700 or more for their cherished Ibrox seats. Hospitality clients haven’t been treated any better after paying up in advance to be boozed up in the company of legends like Lee McCulloch, Cammy Bell and Kevin Kyle.

On Saturday Clement’s side travel to Murrayfield to play Manchester United as they pay the price for pulling out of the Sydney Super Cup, it is highly unlikely that Clement will have any new signings in his team.

With the new season three weeks away things could hardly be bleaker, after facing Hearts at Tynecastle on August 3 Clement faces midweek Champions League qualifiers that are becoming more critical with every passing day.

Steering a squad led by James Tavernier through two qualifying rounds to collect £30m from the new look Champions League might save the day for the board, failure could see a rerun of season 2011/12 when Ally McCoist led Rangers into administration and liquidation after losing to Malmo.