It’s not even Bonfire Night and Philippe Clement looks in grave danger of becoming the next Rangers manager to be fired to appease an increasingly disillusioned fan base.
With his side rarely sparkling this season, another damp squib of a performance at Pittodrie felt, for many, like the point of no return for the Belgian.
Six months of progress have been followed by six months of regression. Any understanding Clement was afforded given the restraints he’s been working under has now evaporated as one dismal day has followed the next.
His calls for patience and promises of jam tomorrow look increasingly hollow when Jimmy Thelin’s recalibrated Aberdeen side are threatening to become a dot on the horizon.
The Dons aren’t yet out of sight in second place, but Clement’s battle for credibility was hugely damaged in midweek — both by the outcome and his words.
Phillipe Clement is coming under increasing pressure to hold on to his job as Rangers boss
He was left frustrated after seeing his side go down 2-1 at Aberdeen on Wednesday
Shayden Morris grabbed the winning goal for the hosts to pile on the misery for the Belgian
The charge sheet being thrown at the manager is lengthening by the week.
There’s the lack of consistency. The team rarely perform for 90 minutes. After over a year in charge, no one can quite discern the pattern of play.
More than anything, though, Clement’s side looked weak both physically and mentally at Pittodrie. There was an edge to the Dons’ game that was missing in the visitors.
Thelin’s side won the match because they battled and hung in there when the going got tough. Whatever limitations this Rangers side have, the fact they did not look up for the fight was hugely damning.
‘I want to see more,’ admitted Clement yesterday. ‘Those are the things we’re working on. Those are the things we’re talking about.
‘You see it in moments when it goes well. And we need to turn that around, (so) that it’s there all the time. Those are the basics.
‘That was one of the strengths last season, that this team dug in (during) the difficult moments to turn things around.’
If that willingness to put bodies on the line and win tackles was there in the early stages of Clement’s reign, where has it gone?
While there has been a significant turnaround of players, it’s incumbent on the manager to make sure those who come in have the stomach for a scrap. At all levels of football, full commitment is the least you should expect.
Truth be told, it’s been half-hearted all over the pitch throughout most of this season.
The two goals Clement’s side lost in midweek were horrendous. They’ve not had a clean sheet in three domestic matches.
Nedim Bajrami’s wonderful individual goal just after the break wasn’t enough to secure a result
Aside from a brief spell at the start of the second half, the midfield again didn’t move the ball quickly enough — then wilted when the Dons moved up a gear.
Notwithstanding Nedim Bajrami’s delightful goal, Clement’s men lacked conviction in the final third. They’ve scored just twice in five away Premiership matches now, the second poorest record in the division.
In every conceivable sense, the team are going backwards. And there’s no evidence that Clement can reverse that trend.
‘It’s our work,’ he insisted. ‘I never spoke in one year about it’s my work or I’ve done something alone. It was always to work together with the players, with the staff, with the board, with everybody.’
For an increasingly bemused support, his post-match comments at Pittodrie were the equivalent of throwing a tanker’s worth of fuel on a fire.
Most observers believed they had witnessed a wretched first-half display, followed by an improvement for 20 minutes before the familiar sound of bottles crashing.
Clement’s take on proceedings — that it was one of the better displays of the season — put him in a minority of one and probably said a great deal about the standard of fare his side have been turning in.
Unrepentant yesterday, he said: ‘I didn’t say that everything was good, that I was happy with how we get goals against or how we get chances against. I didn’t say that totally.
James Tavernier’s attention has now turned to Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup semi-final
‘I didn’t say also that it was a great performance. I didn’t say it was the best performance. I gave also credit to Aberdeen, what they did.
‘I saw the same things, the things that the team did well and the things that we didn’t do well, why we lost the game.
‘I saw a team that tried until the last second of the game, and we had it in the last minute the header with Tav (James Tavernier) just next to the post.
‘It’s not that the team don’t want (to compete) or they give up or anything like that.
‘So, we’re going to continue fighting to get results our way and to make things better and, for sure, more consistent. To get more of the football that we saw against Malmo, against (Steaua) Bucharest.’
While those matches told you this Rangers team have good performances in them, they increasingly look like outliers.
Much more familiar have been the displays against Dynamo Kyiv, Hearts, Kilmarnock, Celtic and Aberdeen.
That’s no recipe for progress. It’s no reason for supporters to cling to the belief that all will come good.
‘They saw last season that, with the right conclusions, with the right attitude, with the right mentality, with the right spirit, things can change really fast,’ persisted Clement.
‘We’re working really hard on that with all the group and to know that every loss is a drama, it’s a really bad thing. That’s what you need to live with. It’s what you need to embrace.’
For all that the club evidently don’t want to go through another mid-season managerial change, a victory against Motherwell in tomorrow’s Premier Sports Cup semi-final at Hampden does feel non-negotiable.
An institution who are missing a number of key boardroom figures will still find a way of sacking a manager if the fury of the masses dictates as such. They will have no alternative.
For now, though, Clement intends on carrying on regardless.
Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell takes his side to Hampden with confidence high
‘I know what project I started in June,’ he added. ‘It was another project (from the one) I started in October.
‘We had this talk in June that it was a really big challenge. That is also why there were negotiations about the contract and what to do, from both sides.
‘We’re going to continue working on that. They didn’t want to go back to 2012 when the club was bankrupt.
‘So, there had to be a major turnaround in every sense. There had to be young players coming in, there had to be a big cut of wages in the squad, there had to be a lot of transfers.
‘We wanted maybe as a club more outgoing transfers, getting more money in to use that in the transfer market. That was not possible at the end.
‘So, the club knows where it’s coming from. It’s now the start of a better period, and you don’t see it in results now. Yes, that’s true. It’s totally true.
‘But there is a foundation now being built for the future, for a more healthy club to grow out of that. And everybody knew it was not possible in one transfer window.
‘Of course, I know if you lose ten games in a row and all the players don’t want to work with you, then there’s an environment that you cannot work in. But that’s totally not the case.’
