Philippe Clement claims he felt “alone in the desert” for months at Rangers before the arrival of Patrick Stewart.
By full time at Ibrox on Sunday, that desolate feeling must have returned as brassed-off punters voted with their feet and the heat cranked up on the Belgian. It’s fair to say results over the course of the last few months have more than just sewn seeds of doubt in the mind of a support who reached the stage of issuing statements calling for his head last week.
Yet, together with the new chief executive Clement has vowed to get Rangers back on healthy ground and blooming. A root and branch review of the football department at Ibrox gets underway today. A department that’s malfunctioned so badly that there’s a snowball’s chance in the desert of a title challenge coming between now and May. There’s no more excuses for Clement though. After months of being left without a CEO, a full-time chairman and a sporting director, he has a full supporting cast.
In his first public address as chief executive on Saturday, Stewart gave his backing to the Belgian. The former Manchester United chief insisted he would not bow to fan pressure and take the easy option to fire the manager – insisting doing so is no silver bullet. He even pointed to his old club as proof of that.
Stewart was wise enough to leave the caveat that results must improve. Clement isn’t daft enough not to know it himself. But with the backing of Stewart he insists he CAN turn things round and get the punters back onside.
He said: “I know that, and I spoke with Patrick already a lot. He’s not long in the building, but I’m very happy that he’s here. I’ve been six, seven months sometimes feeling alone in the desert and addressing things to make better in the club or that I saw things regressing. He is very motivated to make things better.
“That will help me, that will help the football department, but it will help everything inside the club. So I’m happy that we can have really open and sometimes critical discussions about it.”
Stewart said everything would be in scope in the review that started this morning and is expected to last six – 12 weeks. From the academy to the first team, no stone will be left unturned. Clement knows changes are needed. Doing the same thing over and over will only lead to repeated failure. And he’s fully ready to play his part in the review.
He said: “Yes, of course. We had also a kind of review last season also in that way, because there are several things that we need to improve to go to the level that Rangers need to be. That’s something for the people to discuss inside, and that we will do inside of the building.
“So those are things, what I said, that’s been addressed the last couple of months, but there was no platform to change a lot. And maybe not to change a lot. To change certain things, and I think it’s crucial, but it’s in every club crucial also to have a review every year about things, also when things go well, because teams who keep on doing the same, they don’t evolve and they don’t become better. So in that way, it’s a normal thing, for every club who wants to improve themselves.”
In the short term fans want to know what players will be brought in to bolster a squad – particularly an injury-hit defence – with Europa League progression up fro grabs and the Scottish Cup about to get underway. Stewart confirmed the possibility of up to two players coming in. And, speaking after another cheap goal was shipped from a corner against St Johnstone, Clement said he’d already identified players he wants to bring in before the end of the month.
He said: “That’s a frustration to get goals against us like that today because the organisation is clear, it’s about winning the duels. About positions, I never speak about that outside. Everybody knows in the building what we want, what we need.
“I saw the last two months a lot of players that recruitment team came with, and several good players who can add the squad in quality. It’s now about getting that over the line, and we will see how far the club can get with that.”
Rangers had little problem easing past rock bottom St Johnstone, even if they lost the second half 1-0 after taking their foot off the pedal. It makes little change to the top of the table other than cutting the gap on Celtic to 15 points. But Clement said: “A good and in moments very good first half, with good attacking football, pressing, not conceding any chances, creating several chances, much more movement behind the defence, what we missed against Dundee, and really good goals and a deserved lead.
“Second half, we wanted to do the same. We started also well in the second half in that way on the front foot, but the longer the second half was going on, the lower our tempo became, and then it became not the things that I wanted to see – or what I saw in the first hour of the game. So, well-deserved victory, but we need to keep that level 90 minutes long.”