Shortly after Rabbi Matondo had rifled the ball into Joe Hart’s top corner at Ibrox last April, he spoke about how Kevin de Bruyne had been the inspiration behind his stoppage-time equaliser.
Quite an eye-catching line, by all accounts. On any other day, a jobbing Rangers winger talking about one of the greatest players in world football could easily have dominated the back-page headlines the next morning.
But it was immediately demoted on account of what his manager had just said in the very same post-match media conference.
Following a dramatic 3-3 draw with Celtic, a game which had seen Rangers snatch a point thanks to Matondo’s late leveller, Philippe Clement declared his team to be the ‘moral winners’.
It was one of those moments that caused journalists to look each other, roll the eyes and puff out the cheeks.
Rangers went into that game knowing that the destiny of the league title was very much in their own hands. Celtic were vulnerable and there for the taking.
Clement celebrates Rabbi Matondo’s equaliser in last April’s 3-3 draw with Celtic at Ibrox
Clement was in the shadow of Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers during his time in Glasgow
Clement and coach Stephan Van Der Heyden leave Rangers Training Centre after their sacking
Rangers were at home and were expected to win. For Clement to come out afterwards and start spouting nonsense about ‘moral winners’, that was the day alarm bells really started to ring.
From that moment, he always looked like a misfit and a guy in the wrong movie. Rangers blew a massive opportunity that day. In their next game, they lost 3-2 away at Ross County and then drew 0-0 away at Dundee.
All the positivity that had built during Clement’s first few months at the club, a run which had seen Rangers reel off 24 wins and three draws from his first 28 games in all competitions, had gone.
It was a title collapse from which Clement never recovered. Rangers’ poor form continued into the start of the new season and, given the stadium fiasco over the summer, it soon became an omnishambles on and off the pitch.
Another decent run in the Europa League, as well as a 3-0 win over Celtic at the turn of the year, looked like it might be enough to buy Clement some time and retain some credit in the bank.
But a Scottish Cup exit at the hands of Queen’s Park was probably a sacking offence in itself, albeit new chief executive Patrick Stewart publicly backed the manager following that humiliation.
St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson celebrates with his players after their 2-0 success at Ibrox
A 2-0 home defeat to St Mirren last weekend, however, proved to be the breaking point. It was one calamity too many for a manager who should really have been put of his misery quite some time ago.
Stewart and the Rangers hierarchy were willing to grant Clement the opportunity to see out the remainder of the European campaign, with a Europa League last-16 clash with Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce to come.
There was a hope that he could yet salvage something from a disastrous campaign. But the defeat to St Mirren was effectively the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Beyond the result on the pitch, it had become clear long ago that Clement was fundamentally unsuited to being the manager of Rangers. His comments became increasingly ill-judged, to the point he became a figure of public ridicule.
After the defeat to Queen’s Park a fortnight ago, he started banging on about how Rangers had more shots at goal than in any other game this season.
After a 2-1 defeat at Aberdeen back in October, he claimed that Rangers had actually produced one of their best performances of the season.
Queen’s Park produced one of the all-time biggest Scottish Cup upsets earlier this month
Again, total nonsense. They were the words of a manager who would often lose touch with reality in moments of trouble.
Perhaps the biggest mistake Rangers made with Clement was to award him a new contract back at the start of the season, one which tied him to the club until 2028.
He had done nothing to warrant that extension. After the initial bounce and winning the League Cup when he arrived, the tail end of last season was a disaster.
But, what cooked his goose more than anything was the fact that Rangers had no discernible style of play despite the fact he had been in the job for 16 months.
Europe was a different story. Up against better teams, Rangers often had more space to counter and play on the break.
But, domestically, they were awful. The style of football has been turgid this season under Clement and he has now paid for that with his job.
Rodgers holds aloft the League Cup trophy after Celtic’s penalty shoot-out win over Rangers
The style of play is the one key area where managers are judged above all else in the modern game. You can’t fool the fans. They know what they are watching on a weekly basis.
If supporters can see a style of play to get onboard with, they *will* give a manager time. The most obvious point of reference for this over the past few years in Scottish football is Ange Postecoglou.
When Postecoglou took charge of Celtic in the summer of 2021, success was not an immediate companion. There were bumps in the road. Big ones.
Celtic were knocked out of the Champions League qualifiers against FC Midtjylland. In Postecoglou’s first league game in charge, they lost 2-1 against Hearts at Tynecastle.
In his first Old Firm game against Rangers, they lost 1-0 at Ibrox. But, by that point, Celtic had already developed a very clear style of play.
They had already stormed to two 6-0 wins over Dundee and St Mirren by the time they faced Rangers. They were battering teams and showcasing the fast-paced, free-flowing style that would become known as ‘Angeball’.
Clement talked up his team’s high achievement in Europe but there was no hiding from domestic disappointment
Postecoglou had taken over a club in crisis following the disastrous ten-in-a-row season. Working within a budget, he turned Celtic around in double-quick time thanks to smart coaching, clever signings and good management.
That’s what Rangers need right now. They need a manager who can implement a clear style of play, with shrewd recruitment, and can take the club forward. They need their own Ange Postecoglou.
Someone like Kjetil Knutsen, a proven operator in Europe with Bodo/Glimt who plays attacking football, would, on the face of it, be a good fit.
Knutsen speaks good English and has a proven track record of punching above his weight with the Norwegians whilst playing an attractive brand of football.
What Rangers have, at least in the short-term, is Barry Ferguson. It was announced yesterday Ferguson is to lead an interim management team, assisted by Neil McCann, Billy Dodds, Allan McGregor and Issame Charai.
Bodo/Glimt boss Kjetil Knutsen could come under consideration for the Ibrox vacancy
A club legend as a player, Ferguson will certainly have the respect of the dressing room. But his capabilities as a coach and manager are less clear.
Having previously been in charge of Clyde, Kelty Hearts and Alloa Athletic, there’s nothing on Ferguson’s CV as a manager to suggest he should really be anywhere near Rangers.
But if the club are looking purely for someone to come in, steady the ship and lift morale, then Ferguson might do the job as a short-term stop-gap appointment until the summer.
Given the cast of thousands working alongside him, however, it does look like management by committee. McCann, Dodds and McGregor all played for the club across many years and can presumably dust down the old club blazer and brown brogues at the drop of a hat.
But Rangers need more than just a few old faces to sort this mess out. They are a club in need of a revolution from top to bottom. That might not be possible until summer.
Former Rangers captain Barry Ferguson has been tasked with lifting the club’s fortunes
The list of potential candidates would be more extensive — and more accessible — in the summer. Steven Gerrard would certainly be more likely to listen to any offer come the summer.
Come what may, this will be the first big test of Stewart’s abilities as chief executive. The club cannot continue to go through this cycle of recruiting poor managers — and then sacking them — every year to 18 months.
From Giovanni van Bronckhorst to Michael Beale and then to Clement, the next manager has to be one that sticks.
