Chris Boyd has given a gloomy assessment of Philippe Clement’s future prospects as Rangers boss, arguing that change is needed after the club slipped further behind Celtic in the Scottish Premiership.
Rangers’ poor form continued on Thursday with a 1-1 draw against Dundee, leaving them 15 points behind their rivals at the top of the table.
They began the game at Dens Park with just three wins in 10 league fixtures away to Ibrox, and completed a goalless performance in the second half to improve that record after Vaclav Cerny canceled out Oluwaseun Adewumi’s opener. Were unable to do.
The result provided more ammunition for those who believe that Clement’s time at Ibrox should end, with the club’s away fans showing their discontent at the full-time whistle.
“It’s one excuse after another,” said former Rangers striker Boyd. Sky Sports. “Rangers have a team that should come here and wipe the floor with Dundee but they are stalling.
“Thirteen points out of 33 away from home is humiliating. You can talk about progress but there is nothing. You talk about players being tired and lacking in confidence. You could have played a week ago or 10 days. First completely destroyed the Celtics – destroyed them.
“And you’re struggling for confidence. You lose two, you draw one game and you lose a game before the Celtic game. There was no confidence battle struggle in the Celtic game.
Please use Chrome browser for more accessible video player
Rangers manager Philippe Clement has reacted to his side’s 1-1 draw with Dundee amid mounting pressure from fans.
“And now after this, you have drawn two games again and are lacking confidence. It doesn’t make sense.
“I look at the club now and on the pitch, it’s broken. There’s no pattern to the game, there’s nothing. You always refer to the Celtic game as Rangers’ best performance this season.
“But this can’t be just a one-off, we know that. It’s outrageous that Rangers are in this position.
Rangers’ Hamza Ighamane responds to Dundee’s opener
“And you can see that you haven’t spent money. Money has been spent. Yes, there have been cost cutting, but money has been spent.
“There’s no improvement. We talked about improvements in injuries as well. I mean, it’s actually worse.
“You can talk about moving players around and playing extra minutes. Guess what? You’re a football player. That’s what you’re paid to do, that’s play minutes.
“There has been no progress at all. It’s done.”
“It’s over [Rangers CEO] Patrick Stewart Now, because I’m telling you right now, these are the last two games we’ve been involved in.
“Those fans have had enough and it’s going to get to the point where they’ll stop coming to games and then you’ll see the real problems start to arise for Rangers, because that can’t continue.”
Sutton: Brendan is opening the champagne
Dundee’s Oluwaseyun Adewunmi celebrates after scoring
Chris Sutton on Sky Sports:
“Philippe Clement has to take responsibility, but the players on the field also have the knowledge and understanding of how to win games.
“You look at the Rangers team and think, ‘Do the jerseys fit many of these players?’ I’ve said it before that there’s a losing mentality at the club and nothing has really changed and it’s not just down to Philippe Clement.
“It’s been happening for years and years and years. And you see how dull that performance was tonight. Celtic are laughing at them.
Rangers take first win at Dens Park
“Brendan Rodgers, he’ll open the champagne this evening and laugh at them. It’s a disgrace that we’re in the early stages of January and Celtic are 15 points clear at the top. It’s shocking and it’s amazing.
“We were talking before the game, me and Chris [Boyd] Thought Philip Clement should have left a long time ago. But now they’re at a kind of crossroads because can this continue? The clubs are in regression.
“And so are we going to look at that or is Patrick Stewart going to look at the bigger picture, not just a game against Celtic where he extended the game or, you know, the odd game in Europe?
“Clement will come out and talk about Celtic’s big budget but Rangers shouldn’t be dropping 19 points against sides who have a much smaller budget than them, and he’s never mentioned that.
“We hear excuses every week now. And that’s not good enough. And now it’s time for him to take ownership, but he won’t do it.
“But this Belgian waffle will keep going, and going, and going. It won’t stop until there’s a decision on him.”
Clement: I have ‘200 per cent’ support of the board
Philippe Clement claimed the Rangers board is behind him “200 per cent”. Asked if he was confident that the board, which has a new chief executive in Patrick Stewart, is still behind him 100 per cent, the Belgium boss replied: “Yes, 200 per cent.
“We talk every day about everything, about January, about next season, about everything. Yes, of course the fans are unhappy.
“We are also unhappy, we are all unhappy, to lose these three points. When we are good, when we play a good game the supporters are always behind us. So today it was not a good game.”
Václav Cerny celebrates after making the score 1-1
“So I understand they are unhappy with that. I know these supporters they don’t give up when we show quality. It’s about showing quality on the pitch and then they are straight behind the team, always.
“So it’s our job to do it as quickly as possible. It starts on Sunday, to show quality again in both sides of the game. Not only offensively, but defensively as well.”
“Today, defensively, it was better than previous away games. So, a positive. The game that Clinton Nsiala played in his first game for Rangers was a positive point.
“But in the end, it’s definitely about the results. A lot of issues have come up in the last two or three weeks.”
