Fuming Kris Boyd isn’t having any more excuses from Philippe Clement as he demanded to know if the Rangers board are sticking with the boss for financial reasons.
The Light Blues have been plunged into crisis after the humbling Scottish Cup exit at the hands of Championship side Queen’s Park – which leaves the club facing the prospect of a campaign without silverware. The pressure is rapidly mounting on the Belgian and Boyd has insisted the fans must be told why the club have opted to stick with boss – if he survives until this weekend’s clash with Hearts.
CEO Patrick Stewart has previously stated that Rangers’ bank balance would not dictate if Clement survived in the hotseat – but Boyd can’t shake his creeping suspicion as he called for answers from the Ibrox decision-makers. He told Sky Sports: “Philippe Clement is hanging on to his job – just. But the Rangers fans want to know – and I know that Patrick Stewart has said it wasn’t a financial decision, in the past – but right now the Rangers fans need to know if Philippe Clement is only there because of finances.”
Boyd then ripped apart Clement’s “excuses” – from giving youth a chance at the club to the financial gap with table-topping Celtic as he questioned if the boss still had trust in the current squad. The irked Rangers hero: “In terms of progression, there is nothing for any Rangers fan to feel optimistic about Philippe Clement carrying this club forward. Philippe Clement has stumbled across a few things this season and he has went with it.
“The youngsters at Old Trafford, you kind of got the feeling they were proving a point on giving youth a chance. They went on and did really well and now the Rangers fans are saying ‘give the youth a chance to play’ – Philippe Clement done that at the weekend with Bailey Rice, and then took him off at half-time because he needed a more experienced player. So there is a lack of trust from the manager to the players.
“Ultimately, Philippe Clement speaks about budgets when he is coming up against clubs that are superior to Rangers in Europe or Celtic, but doesn’t flip it the other way. He talks about chances created – nobody cares how many shots you have had on goal. The Rangers fans are fed up with Philippe Clement’s excuses.
“Clement has already had a lot of criticism – and rightly so, in my opinion. 13 points behind Celtic in the league, out of the Scottish Cup to Queen’s Park at home and lost the League Cup final to Celtic. Yes they have qualified for the last 16 of the Europa League but domestically – when I was growing up – was the be all and end all. And right now, it’s not good enough.
“I don’t see this Rangers team improving. Away from home they have really been struggling. The prime example for me was Ange Postecoglou at Celtic – they had lost players and were going through a rebuild.
“Within a couple of weeks, you could see the style of play, the fans bought into it and we know what happened next. Rangers fans can say ‘we haven’t had loads of money to spend’ – it’s a myth. We spent £3.5m on Bajrami which is a lot of money for Rangers. Rangers spent almost £12m in the summer and are already tied in to buy Oscar Cortes in the summer coming up for £3m.
“You talk about not wanting the rinse and repeat of managers – you have to do that until you find the right manager. You can’t just say because we sacked the last three managers we are going to continue with this one – it doesn’t work like that.”