'What agents are telling me...' - Journo claims Rangers can afford to sack Clement, exit clause mooted

Rangers likely can afford to sack Philippe Clement if they want to despite signing him to a contract extension just before the season started, according to Peter Martin.

The journalist and PLZ Soccer host said on the outlet’s YouTube channel on 21 October that multiple agents had informed him it is now common practice for reduced compensation clauses to be added, after the Ibrox boss got a surprise extra year to his deal in the summer.

Following the weekend’s 1-0 loss at Kilmarnock, which squandered the chance to close the gap on Celtic and Aberdeen, Clement is under serious pressure, but contrary to the view that it would be financially impossible for the Light Blues to get rid of him Martin says it’s likely to actually be quite affordable.

He said (8m 50s): “I’ve talked to a number of agents who basically have said, you know I think people were slightly caught by surprise by his extension to his deal, but what agents are telling me now is with a lot of managers there’s a clause in the contract.

“[It] says, ‘Look, we’re giving you an extension, you may well get an increase in money but that’s to protect us in case somebody comes and steals you as the manager, so we can get compensation. But the flip side of that is if we sack you you’re only going to get six months’ money, you’re not getting four years.’

“There’s a lot more of that going on because clubs quite simply can’t afford to sack people and pay four years of their manager’s fees, that could cripple them”.

Rangers trail Celtic and Aberdeen by six points

If there is a relatively cheap get-out it would make the possibility of a sacking that much more realistic at Ibrox if things don’t improve markedly in the coming weeks.

Michael Stewart has already pinpointed the trip to Pittodrie on 30 October as potentially ending a “defining” period for Clement [Premier Sports, 21 October] and if the Gers slipped to nine points or more behind by next week serious questions will be asked.

However, unless John Gilligan, and whoever else he can muster up behind the scenes after all the resignations, have a ready-made replacement plan a sacking is likely to just increase the chaos.

And any successor to Clement is going to need to feel like that can do a job with the current squad or Rangers will be right back in the exact same position they’ve been in the past two years.

The hiring and firing of managers is financially unsustainable in itself, but the repeated need to back the new man with his own signings while writing off mistakes of the one before is impossible to keep up.

A mismatched squad with a few men signed for each of the previous managers leaves anything but a coherent unit, as has been painfully demonstrated in the past couple of years.

The likes of Antonio Colak, Todd Cantwell, Ben Davies, Sam Lammers and Jose Cifuentes have all come and gone in no time, with Ridvan Yilmaz, Cyriel Dessers, Kieran Dowell and others potentially set to follow in the near future, as one coach wanted them and the next one didn’t.

So while the club may be able to sack afford to sack Clement, whether they can afford to sack his plans and start over again might be another matter.

In other Rangers news, Clement has a “hell of a long way back” with the fans turning on his management.

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