Shanghai Port boss Kevin Muscat insisted he wasn’t looking any further ahead than the next game amid a clamour for him to take over at Rangers.
And the Australian has been reward with a crucial victory in the Asian Champions League amid escalating pressure on Philippe Clement – the man who landed the Ibrox hot seat ahead of Muscat. After Michael Beale was shown the door in October last year, then Yokohama F. Marinos manager Muscat emerged as one of the frontrunners and spoke to the Scottish Premiership giants before they opted to go with the Belgian.
Despite Muscat’s ally Craig Moore insisting that the door was now closed on a move to the Light Blues, Rangers fans have still floated the potential arrival with the Chinese League season running until December. But going into the massive clash with Central Coast Mariners in the continental competition Muscat was keen to stick to his philosophy focus on the upcoming game and tuning out outside noise.
After defeat to Chengdu Rongcheng saw Shanghai overtaken at the Super League summit last weekend, Muscat insisted he was laser focussed: “I think it’s important that we have not given any thought to Sunday’s game. For ourselves, it hasn’t happened all season where we have been disappointed in a performance as we have in the last game, so what is important is to focus on tomorrow night’s game (against Central Coast Mariners) and that we get back into our rhythm.
“Get back to being aggressive and not passive, taking risks and opportunities. That is what is important. A good performance will lead to positives later on, but we can’t focus on too far ahead.”
The attitude of the boss was rewarded with a 3-2 win over the A-League side – kickstarting their Group A campaign by securing a first win. But while Muscat’s stock is rising, Clement is facing increased scrutiny.
Defeat to Kilmarnock has proven to be the final straw for a number of fans, while Clement has insisted his team need to be allowed time to gel after a hectic summer recruitment drive. Former Gers’ hero Andy Halliday clamped that logic – as he pointed to the flying start of a revamped Aberdeen side under Jimmy Thelin.
Halliday told Clyde 1 Superscoreboard: “Philippe Clement stated just a few weeks ago that he needs time. He’s obviously got new players and he’s integrating a new squad and you’ll probably start to see the best of his squad in October.
“I mean October, they lost 4-1 to Lyon, it was an unconvincing win over St Johnstone and now a 1-0 defeat to Killie. Before that, they won 1-0 at home to Hibs where Hibs missed a penalty and deserved a draw out of the game so I don’t think they have got better. I actually don’t think they’ve improved either since his last statement when he made that statement.
“So I do think he has a lot of the blame and I think Jimmy Thelin at Aberdeen is making a mockery of that statement altogether because you can see what you can do with a new group of players, a pre-season and how much you can implement a style with new players. That’s why they’ve went on the record they’ve went on.”
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