Kevin Muscat led his Shanghai side to the Chinese Super League title with a sizzling final day romp – and had Rangers fans blown away with his exciting brand of football.
Muscat became the first Aussie boss to J-League, A-League and now the Chinese Super League as his Shanghai Port team ran riot with a 5-0 win over Tianjin Jinmen to pip their rivals Shanghai Shenua to the title. He won the Treble with Rangers in 2003 as a player and was in the running to be Michael Beale‘s replacement last year, before losing out to Philippe Clement – who one year on finds himself under severe pressure and facing the same fate as both of his predecessors.
Muscat’s trajectory meanwhile has been the polar opposite – he’s now conquered China after winning titles with Melbourne Victory and Shanghai Port, and stands alone as the sole Aussie to win all three.
He did so playing a blistering brand of football that had Rangers fans watching on pining to see something similar at Ibrox. His team racked up five on the final day, making it 96 goals for the season – averaging more than three goals per game on their way to a stunning title success.
Former Chelsea playmaker Oscar was among the goals on the final day of the season and it’s the sort of football Clement has desperately struggled to muster in Scotland. He’s been criticised for his slow, pedestrian style of play that’s led to Gers scoring fewer goals away from home than ANYONE so far in the Premiership this season.
One Rangers fan joked: “A goal from a corner. I’ve forgotten what that feels like,” while another wrote: “Actually looks like they work on that in training. Imagine we could do that!”
Another pining fan said: “People say the standard is crap, his teams standard is also crap but he can still get the players scoring loads of goals and working on set pieces. Something Clement seems incapable of with better players,” while one more added: “95 goals in a 30 game season is impressive. Especially when 2nd place has scored 72 and his own team only scored 61 last season before he took over. Still 30 mins left to increase that.”
The next two games, against Motherwell in the Premier Sports Cup and Hearts in the league, may well define whether Clement survives the November international break. But if the change is made then, with the Chinese season now concluded and Muscat’s stock throught he roof, the stars may well align.