Rangers CEO Patrick Stewart has moved to explain his change of heart over Philippe Clement’s future after showing the boss the door.
Defeat to St Mirren on Saturday proved to be one bad result too many for the former Manchester United chief as he finally showed the struggling Belgian the door – just days after he offered him public backing in a sit-down interview with Rangers TV. Just five days before Clement was axed, Stewart insisted the deep Europa League run had helped him cling to his job despite trailing Celtic by 13 points and the “disastrous” Queen’s Park Scottish Cup exit.
But Barry Ferguson has now been ushered into the hotseat on a temporary basis, with Stewart commenting after the appointment of the former Ibrox skipper: “Philippe and his team have worked tirelessly during their time in at the club and have played an important role in developing the first team’s young players.
“I want to reiterate, the issues we are facing run deeper than the manager. The ongoing football review seeks to address those issues, and we will continue to implement its findings in the coming weeks and months ahead of appointing a new, permanent manager.
“When I spoke to RangersTV last week, I was clear that everyone is judged on results, and nobody will get unlimited time in any role at the club. Ultimately, the team’s response following their early exit from the Scottish Cup was a cause for deep concern, leading the board to conclude that action had to be taken now.
“I want to wish Philippe every success in the future. He is a fine man whom I have enjoyed working with in my short time here so far.
“I also want to welcome Barry back to the club. We appreciate him and his team stepping into the role at this difficult time. Myself, the board and the executive team will give them our full support for the rest of the campaign.”
In his interview with Rangers TV last week, Stewart branded the Scottish Cup exit to the Spiders “a source of shame” but offered the boss his backing – but it wouldn’t last long for the gaffer. He had said: “Why is he still the manager? Look, I’m going to go back to what I said in January. We have been underperforming as a club for several seasons now and that’s not down to a manager. We’ve changed the manager and it’s not made a difference.
“So I’m going into the foundations and having a really good look at this. So that’s the first reason. Secondly, look, for all the Queen’s Park result was disastrous, I think we do also have to give credit to Philippe and the team for the Europa League run. We had a really tough draw. Four of the top eight we played against and we finished in the top eight. So they deserve real credit for that. And I don’t want to take a step that would put further progress in the Europa League at risk. So that’s another reason for why we continue to keep Philippe in his role.
“I’ve said this before, I am not here to make popular decisions and get quick wins. I do not want to repeat the mistakes of the past. I’m not going to do that. I’ve got to keep real discipline and focus on making sure that we are making the right decisions in the right order for the long benefit of the club and not knee-jerk reacting to what was frankly a disastrous result. I’m not trying to duck from that, but we’ve got to stick to the plan. To be clear though, we’re all judged on results, myself, Philippe. So there’s no free passes here, but we are sticking to the plan and I’m going to be incredibly disciplined about that because we’ve not always been that in the past.”