It could be a new low for Rangers under Philippe Clement – but the boss wasn’t having doubts about his future following their humbling defeat to Queen’s Park.
Without a triumph in the Europa League, the Light Blues are hurtling towards a trophyless campaign after crashing out of the Scottish Cup at the hands of the Scottish Championship side after substitute Sebastian Drozd netted a second half winner at Ibrox. James Tavernier was given the chance to level from the penalty spot in injury time – but Callum Ferrie saved the Rangers captain’s effort from 12 yards to send the Glasgow heavyweights crashing out of the cup.
With Celtic already 13 points ahead in the Scottish Premiership title race and their hopes of keeping the League Cup ay Ibrox ended by Brendan Rodgers’ side earlier this season in the Hampden showpiece, it’s all or nothing in Europe this term after the humiliation at the hands of Callum Davidson‘s men. Scrutiny over his long-term future is now at an all-time high – but the Belgian was in bullish form after the 90 minutes.
So what did he say during some spiky exchanges? Record Sport takes a look.
Where did it go wrong for your team today?
PC: First in the first half, not enough tempo. On the ball, still creating enough to go in front or to score two goals or three goals even without conceding anything. But I was not happy with the tempo. So that’s why I made the changes in half-time. Tempo was better second half but we lost composure, coolness. We went into the emotions to rush things and because of that, yeah, we lost our cool in and around the box and that’s the main thing of today because it’s a hold-up at the end. We get today the most shots on target of all season. No, not on target, most shots towards goal. Of all season, we have 12 on target but we didn’t score, not even a penalty. And then you get this very bad result. So it’s very frustrating to go out of the cup in this way.
When you’re at home, you’re playing against a lower league opposition, you’ve got a strong team out there. How concerning is a result like that?
Yeah, of course it’s unacceptable, this result. Clearly, that’s unacceptable. And we lost our composure, that’s the main thing of today. We lost our cool in the second half to make the right decisions in the box. And we had a goalkeeper against who probably played the game of his life also. So you need to take that on the chin and it’s a hard one to take.
People are speaking about this already as one of the worst results in the Club’s modern history. Do you understand that in the eyes of some fans, that is a result that’s just difficult to come back from, given the nature of it?
PC: And what do you mean with come back from?
In terms of your tenure, in terms of fans’ belief in the project, in terms of where you sit in the domestic seat…
PC: OK, but if you look purely to the result, yes, it’s nothing to do today with tactics or with putting too many other players or whatever. This is one of the days that doesn’t happen so much, that’s true. It doesn’t happen so much that you have that many chances and you don’t score goals, that you have 12 shots on target, that you don’t score a goal. Maybe the team wanted too much in the second half to score it and because of that lost composure. It’s nothing to do with the work that the team has been doing the last couple of months.
Will you expect talks with the board later on today or perhaps tomorrow? You look down through history, very few Old Firm managers survive results like that…
PC: No, I don’t expect this because you can put another manager in this game, coach this game during the game. Would it be different in that sense? So what was yesterday, then good and the progression was made and top eight in Europe and more consistency in the league and all these things, they don’t change in 90 minutes.
If you do that and make decisions in that way, then you make only decisions out of emotions and not out of what’s been going on. So I don’t expect this now.
Will you consider your own position? Fans are already asking for your resignation.
PC: No, totally not.
Do you understand why they’ll ask for your resignation? There’s very little credit in the bank domestically.
PC: We know, again, we had these talks the last couple of months about building up something new. A few weeks ago or the last weeks, everybody says yes, everybody sees the evolution this club is making. So again, out of the emotion, taking decisions and turning everything around, I don’t think this is what this club needs.
But you must know that the fans aren’t on your side…
PC: I understand that the fans are in emotions now. I know a lot of fans were on my side three hours ago. I know, I know that. So now are the emotions of this game and I totally understand that because I’m also angry and frustrated about that, about this result and going out of the Cup because it was one of our big goals and our shortest chance to go to win a trophy this season. We all know that. That’s probably also one of the reasons that the team was nervous in the second half because they wanted that so much because they know how important it is for the club.
Do you understand that there are some results that are just so big that there might not be any way back after that? How do you turn that around?
PC: With getting results again. With getting results again. It’s like that. And that’s the way back. And I know what we are doing with the club, with the budget that we had before the season, with the budget that we had in the winter transfer market also and in the evolution that players are making.
And all you guys said it also the last couple of weeks, the evolution of this player, this player, this player, this player, this player, this player. So today not, no. In the result, in our composure, in scoring the chances that we created, that not. But it doesn’t change with changing a manager and suddenly we would have won this game. It’s not a change.
What would you say to the fans who perhaps don’t see enough in that evolution to suggest that you’re the right man to take this football club forward?
PC: Because I know a lot of fans had this idea three hours ago. And we’re going to continue working on that, working on the composure, working on finishing off the chances, which we did much better the last couple of weeks. We had several games where we scored a lot of goals. Again today we created enough to win three games. We didn’t concede many chances. We get one shot on target and it’s a goal. It’s a hold-up today. It’s a f***** frustrating one. Sorry to use that word. But it’s my feeling for the moment. So I’m as frustrated as everybody else.
Is this as low as you felt in your time in Glasgow?
PC: I’m not low. I’m very frustrated. I’m not low. I’m not low. I’m ambitious to get results back. I’m very frustrated about this result of today, yes. But I’m not low.