'He Was Gone' - Pundit says Clement was 45 mins from exit after Rangers sack 'Red Alert' claim

Philippe Clement would have been sacked by Rangers if they hadn’t come back to beat Motherwell at Hampden Park, says Tam McManus.

The Ex-Hibs striker claimed on PLZ Soccer (4 November) that the Belgian was “on the way out” while trailing 1-0 at half-time of the League Cup semi final the previous day, before a “massive” 45 minutes saved his job.

Clement was under huge pressure going into the game following a 2-1 Scottish Premiership loss at Aberdeen on 30 October, and a miserable opening half at Hampden increased the stakes before a turnaround after the break to make it through to the final 2-1.

Host Peter Martin said (15m 30s): “I think a number of people were put on red alert to see if the result doesn’t go Rangers’ way stay there because the manager could be getting sacked, that was the narrative.”

McManus replied: “Yeah it was. I think I was the only one to predict Motherwell to win and I thought at half-time I’d maybe got it right. First half, Rangers huffed and puffed, they missed a couple of chances but Motherwell went in ahead.

“I think it was a massive 45 minutes for Philippe Clement. I think if they lose that game he was gone. You could hear the cacophony of boos at half time, for the manager, for the team, they’re booing the captain, James Tavernier, he’s getting dog’s abuse. It looked as if he was on the way out.”

Rangers overturn Motherwell via Cyriel Dessers, Nedim Bajrami

It is debatable whether a defeat to Motherwell would have forced the decision-makers at Ibrox to make a change or not, but it would certainly have cemented the rot under Clement in the eyes of the majority.

Plenty of fans have already given up on the Belgian who looks a shadow of the authoritative figure who arrived to replace the hapless Michael Beale last term.

His post-match claims of progress after bad results have taken on the sort of salesman spin that his predecessor often had, and despite the mitigations of his situation there has been very little in terms of progress for even his staunchest backers to point to.

And yet Rangers weren’t moved to make a change after the loss at Pittodrie left them nine points off the pace and firmly in the same territory as where multiple other managers lost their Gers jobs [Rangers Review, 31 October].

And there are indications that the hierarchy have already made peace with the possibility of a miserable season this term, and even next, as the cost of breaking the cycle of hiring and firing that helped bring the club to this low point [Tom English, 1 November].

Thankfully for Clement and the supporters the cup tie was turned around and neither had to deal with the fact of another damning loss, even if the prospect of meeting Celtic in the final in the wake of their 6-0 battering of the Dons in the other semi is hardly inviting right now.

The fact that there was a response after the break at Hampden, with Cyriel Dessers quickly cancelling out Andy Halliday’s opener after the restart before Nedim Bajrami’s late winner, provides a glimmer of hope that Clement can turn things around.

He has at least seen the folly of sticking with his own signing, Robin Propper, in defence, and he finally responded to a nightmare outing for James Tavernier to take the captain off, so perhaps the Gers boss does have it in him to change what is necessary.

But there have been green shoots of recovery before, following the 3-0 Old Firm loss on 1 September, and after the 1-0 defeat at Kilmarnock on 20 October, yet both times they failed another test before long so Clement badly needs to build on this result and not stumble once more.

In other Rangers news, one Gers player has done something so “crazy” one pundit doesn’t think he’s ever seen worse.

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