50 year old former Club Brugge and Monaco manager, Philippe Clement, was like a breath of fresh air at Ibrox when he arrived as Michael Beale’s replacement in October 2023, and a very good opening season in charge saw hopes and expectations rise for what our new Belgian gaffer could achieve at the club.
With a more significant change in our transfer strategy last summer as Clement and sporting director Nils Koppen pushed through a more youthful developmental focus for our new captures, and a move away from older players who were not cost effective on contracts that took many of them to retirement (and an obvious lack of sell on value), for those fans who felt we had gone a little bit too far, too fast, in enacting that change – well, unfortunately our results and performances across the 2024/25 campaign tend to prove that those concerns were well placed.
For those fans who like a flutter, or have been dabbling with online casino games given the growth in that market, they will appreciate that sticking to your limits, gambling sensibly and knowing how far to push your luck is key to your overall enjoyment. Particularly given the many and multiple games on offer whether that be blackjack, free spin offers or no deposit gaming. Football is not far different on that front, and we over reached really.
With the club also dealing with off pitch issues, and having problems in getting our board structure in the right place to really push us forward, Clement has obviously not had the kind of stability and support in many of the ways he would have wanted, but equally he has arguably been given a little bit more leeway by the board because of that situation.
After all, as we continue to discuss potential further investments options with the likes of Leeds United owners, American NFL giants, the 49ers Enterprises, the last thing that our board would have wanted to be sidetracked by was yet another managerial search, and that had been acknowledged with a reference to not wanting to upset our European progress, even if the league title is sadly once again out of our grasp.
That is however, exactly where we now find ourselves again though as on Monday of this week Rangers confirmed that he had been given his marching orders, and it was announced that club legend Barry Ferguson would now be given the interim manager hat for the foreseeable future.
With the anger, frustration and emotions that have been felt this season in particular by all Gers fans, credit where it is due, when you factor in everything else going on at the club, Clement’s record was not too bad at all. 86 games in total, 55 wins, 16 draws and 15 defeats is how his time at Ibrox comes to an end. A win percentage of 63.95% would be taken by most managers in the game, but our performances were a bigger problem than the lack of wins and with 182 goals scored, 77 conceded is a major standout problem he just could not seem to get ahead of or really improve to the consistent level that was needed to silence his critics.
Part of that was undoubtedly down to a lack of consistent leadership, and that is something that we should absolutely expect to change for the better with the appointment of our 47 year old former midfielder.
Ferguson’s playing achievements are not in doubt, 45 international caps for Scotland and having initially come through our youth Academy ranks, two spells at the club equalled success. 15 trophies and the all important armband tells fans that he will immediately get the standards that players should be operating to, he will understand the expectations that we place on ourselves and he will naturally have an affinity driven set of standards built into him.
But having been out of the game for the last three years after an unsuccessful spell with Alloa Athletic – and having never coached above League One level – for everything he brings to the Ibrox dugout there are massive and major questions not only as to whether he can improve on Clements overall record with us, but could he also potentially be a throwback to an approach that the modern game has long moved on from.
We all know top level players who have tasted huge success who simply cannot adjust to life in the dugout because the players they are now in charge just simply are not on the level that they were, or the level of the teammates that they tasted success alongside.
It is naturally a huge gamble for a wide variety of reasons, and whilst that is not to say that Ibrox could never benefit from a bit of Rangers old school, is the manager position the right place for that experience to come in as our former skipper had been acting as a club ambassador anyway.
It will be a fantastic experiment to watch, but he could well be the culture shock we need to really perform a hard reset that ultimately truly gets us back on track again.
Down the years we have had many notable skippers in our history and for people of my age the likes of John Greig, Terry Butcher and Richard Gough mainly come to mind. But Ferguson is definitely in that next set which would include the likes of Lee McCulloch, Lee Wallace and James Tavernier, and whilst we have had some great players who served us well in the dugout, if Ferguson can surprise everyone during his spell in charge, he will go down as one of the few influential skippers who went on to have a bigger effect on the club in their non-playing days.
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