No-one has to tell Philippe Clement how much the Rangers support are suffering right now.
But for all the pain they’re going through as his side scramble in the wake of Aberdeen and Celtic, the under-pressure Belgian boss is certain they’d far rather go through this than the agony of repeating the club’s 2012 financial meltdown. And it’s for that exact reason that the Ibrox boss and his Gers paymasters opted to take this summer’s drastic action.
A failing operation on and off the park, Rangers were a club in dire need of a reset. That was laid out in the accounts that dropped just 24 hours ahead of Wednesday’s dismal 2-1 defeat at Pittodrie, a result which leaves Clement’s men nine-points adrift of the joint Premiership leaders. Record revenue numbers still weren’t enough to spare the club another massive £17million loss last year, with those figures compounded by the need to sack manager Michael Beale and clear out the mess he’d left behind.
So it was left to Clement to slash the wage bill by around £2.5million ahead of the new season. Those cuts have come with what Clement is desperately hoping is only short-term pain.
Whether he survives long enough to see if there are any long-term gains remains the question ahead of Sunday’s Premier Sports Cup semi-final showdown with Motherwell. But regardless of his own position, he’s adamant that the cloth-cutting that took place before the new campaign was both necessary and unavoidable.
“I know the project I started in June,” said the 50-year-old. “It was another project than I started in October. Those things were less clear. We had this talk in June that it was a really big challenge.
“That is also why there were negotiations about the contract [the new four-year deal he signed on the eve of the season] and what to do, from both sides. We’re going to continue working on that. Of course, I believe in all these people because it was all brought together. It was not only one person.
“It was all brought together going for this story because the story from before was not sustainable. 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.”
Clement may have been able to push his project further along the road had the club’s much-discussed player-trading model not conked out over the summer. While he spent a fee in the region of £13.4million bringing in nine new faces, the club was able to claw back a measly £800,000 despite selling a string of former regulars like Sam Lammers, Connor Goldson, Todd Cantwell and Scott Wright.
“We wanted maybe as a club more outgoing transfers, getting more money in to use in the transfer market,” continued the manager. “That wasn’t possible at the end. So the club knows where it’s coming from. It’s now the start of a better period – even if you don’t see it in results now. Yes, that’s true. Totally true.
“But there’s a foundation now being built for the future, for a more healthy club to grow out of that. And everybody knew it wasn’t possible in one transfer window.”
Clement may always have believed it would take time to get his new-look side going but the furious support who let rip yet again after their damaging Dons defeat are running shy on patience.
Many, frankly, are surprised he’s still in his post now. They’ll be even more shocked to find him at his desk on Monday if his side don’t find a way past Stuart Kettlewell’s Steelmen at Hampden.
Clement is confident he still has the board’s backing – but admits there never have been assurances when it comes to job safety. He said: “It’s never about ‘no matter what [happens]’.
“It’s about we know how difficult it will be and we’re going to stick together and do this project together for the next couple of years. So that’s been clearly talked about. Of course I know if you lose 10 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.”
Clement can be forgiven if he feels like he’s taking stick from all angles. Not only are his decisions in game now being dissected and torn apart, but also his words after the final whistle.
His claim that Gers had produced ‘one of their best performances of the season’ against Aberdeen drew as much scorn as the suggestion his team were a toenail offside call away from a draw, despite being lucky not to go in 4-0 down at half-time on Wednesday. But with time to draw breath two days on from that Granite City shocker, he insists he’s not trying to hide from his side’s failings.
Revisiting his toenail comments, he said: “In the momentum of a game, if you’re that close offside or not, when you score a goal or not, nobody can argue it’s a decisive thing in that game. If that was not the case, it was a 2-2.
“I didn’t say everything was good, that I was happy with how we get goals against. I didn’t say that. 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. There are several things we can do much better and we need to do better to get more consistent results.
“But we played also worse games like that this season. That’s also the truth. We need to get to a better consistent level like we had a few times this season. I want to see that every three days.”