Rangers have finally appointed a new manager. Philippe Clement is the man replacing Michael Beale in the Ibrox hot seat and it is safe to say that he has a lot of work to do. As things stand, they find themselves seven points behind Celtic in the Scottish Premiership table. That is a significant gap to overcome under any circumstance.
On top of that, Clement has to make sure that he adjusts his football to the Scottish game. That might take some time.
At the same time, do not be surprised by a new manager bounce. But then, we have seen that happened during the runs of Beale and Giovanni van Bronckhorst as well. And we all know how that turned out in the long run.
Alex McLeish is someone who knows what it takes to manage at Ibrox. And he had a pretty clear message for Clement.
McLeish offers blunt Celtic truth to Clement
As reported by 67 Hail Hail, McLeish said while speaking on The Scottish Football Podcast about whether the gap between the two Glasgow teams:
"“It’s a tough one. Early doors. I tell you what the reaction was when my first game, the year of the Treble. We were at Killie. I think Celtic won on Saturday. We drew 1-1 and Celtic won. There were headlines in the sports pages saying ‘the league is finished’.”"
McLeish further went on to add that he believes that it is a bit of a different task and that the Rangers will have to win every game moving forward, including the ones against Celtic. That is much easier said than done.
Of course, it is important for Celtic to keep on winning consistently as well. They simply cannot allow the Rangers to make up some of the gap between the two sides at this point in time.
Clement will need to come in and immediately have them winning consistently again. There is very little scope for anything other than that when you are managing in Glasgow. Otherwise, he might end up going the Beale and Giovanni van Bronckhorst route quicker than most people would expect.