It would be safe to say that things are not going as the Rangers would have anticipated when they decided to hand Philippe Clement a long-term contract extension not too long ago. Just months later, they find themselves nine points behind both Celtic and Aberdeen in the Scottish Premiership title race. In fact, they are closer to eighth place Ross County than they are to the two table toppers at this point in time.
And that raises the question: How long before they give up on the Clement project? The Belgian manager had shown a lot of potential early on but since then, things have gone just like they did for Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Mick Beale before him.
Many would argue that those two had actually done better as Rangers manager than Clement has. And as the Ibrox side continue to struggle, some of the Belgian's recent comments have amused the Celtic supporters and most probably had the opposite effect on those supporting the 'other' team in Glasgow.
Chris Sutton wrote in his column in the Daily Record about Clement:
"They have the Belgian Beale in charge. I can’t believe quite how off the rails the manager has gone. After his first few months there were positive signs. He secured a trophy and spoke a lot of sense. After the nonsense of Michael Beale, they looked to have a sensible, serious operator in charge.
They now have a Belgian waffler who is spouting the kind of gibberish that Pedro Caixinha came out with. The warning signs were there last year with his ‘moral victory’ against Celtic and it’s got worse and worse."
Celtic hero Chris Sutton makes bold 'Belgian Beale' claim
One would think that the Rangers would already be looking at replacements for Clement. Showing him the exit door might not be the easiest decision to make though.
Recently, the Rangers announced a net loss of £17 million for the year to June 2024. And one would think that if they parted ways with Clement after handing him a new deal until the summer of 2028 in August, they would have to shell out a decent severance package. Are they in a position to do that if that was indeed the case?
For the time being, it looks like the Rangers are ready to stick with Clement. Otherwise, he would have been shown the exit door after the defeat to Aberdeen.