'Sacking Offence' - Keown: Clement survives at Rangers as perception blown to bits

Gary Keown believes if Philippe Clement didn’t take over a “shambles” of a Rangers team from Michael Beale, his losses against Ross County and Dundee last season would have been a sackable offence.

The Belgian’s future has been under major scrutiny since the 3-0 loss to Celtic on 1 September but despite the lack of confidence from fans and pundits alike, it seems as if he’s safe for now.

Writing for the Daily Mail on 6 October, Keown shared that Clement has blown a hole in the perception that he’s the right man lead the Gers this season after those two results.

“Bearing that in mind, Clement ought to be careful about obsessing over meetings between clubs with budgets ‘in a different world’, as he puts it,” he wrote.

“Lest the Ibrox fanbase snap out of their self-protective apathy and start reflecting on how losing to Motherwell and Ross County and drawing at Dundee sent last term’s hopes of winning the title down the plughole.

“Were it not for the fact Clement inherited a shambles from the best-forgotten Michael Beale, those results last term would have been a sacking offence.

“His lasting problem from those dreadful performances, though, is that they also blew a hole in the perception he was a safe pair of hands at the wheel – calm, sensible, possessing a clear vision of where Rangers had to go. It is a spell from which he has never recovered”.

Philippe Clement needs to reinforce in January

Rangers have had a rather topsy-turvy season thus far. While the club finds themselves third in the Scottish Premiership, this is quite a distance away from where they likely want to be by the end of the term.

Plenty of players were brought in over the summer but, in reality, the window was quite a disappointing one.

Not all of Clement’s men that were brought in have felt like they’ve improved the team much as the Belgian seems to continue to use a similar group of players from last term.

For example, James Tavernier is a name that has cropped up frequently this season in terms of moves away and his performances.

In the Gers’ 4-1 loss to Lyon on 3 October the right-back was hooked an hour in with Keown believing that his time at the club is now over.

The January transfer window is still some time away yet but after John Gilligan told Sky Sports on 24 September that there would be money to spend, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Clement casting one eye towards the transfer window to help bolster his ranks.

In other Rangers news, the Gers are set for a large windfall from the SPFL.

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