Philippe Clement claims Rangers fans are on his side as tensions mount ahead of Celtic clash
There are plenty of Rangers fans who reckon Philippe Clement is so far beyond the dead man walking stage it’s a ouija board rather than a microphone required for his pre-match interviews.
A 14-point chasm between his side and Celtic going into the New Year derby showdown is more than enough reason for most to be expecting the Belgian to be speaking from the managerial beyond. Yet Clement is convinced there are still plenty who believe he’s still alive and kicking.
He will be hard pushed to find too many if there’s another Old Firm failure tomorrow, with the boss still without a victory in the encounter that matters the most to supporters. Clement probably knows it deep down too, but for now he’s putting a brave face on things. As brave as he can in the circumstances.
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As he faced the media on Hogmanay, the gaffer strongly defended his squad rotation and grand plan, insisting his long term vision has not been knocked off course in the defeat to St Mirren and draw with Motherwell.
Those were matches his side dominated but only paid the price for ‘shooting themselves in the foot’. Whether that washes with large swathes of the support is another matter. But he’s adamant he hasn’t lost the faith of the stands.
Clement said: “I don't know. I don't meet these people. I know if you don't get the results people expect a team to get then you get criticism. That's part of the job. Everybody in the club knows what the plan is with the club and what the club had to do to become healthy first.
“That was a big step in the summer – to be sustainable again and then to invest in these young players. Nine days ago, everybody saw and made the conclusion that yes, Rangers is on the right track.
"There are really exciting young players coming through. There are teams saying, 'interesting players at that age playing at that level against Tottenham and Celtic'.
“So that's in a positive way. Does it mean now because we have two games where we had to chase the game because we made some mistakes that suddenly everything that was there before is totally gone? It's not the case. But I know that in my job, you are always under scrutiny if the results are not at that moment what they should be.”
When it was put to Clement a long-awaited Old Firm win against the odds with his injury-hit squad might claw back some belief from his public, he doesn’t see it that way either. He said: “No, I know that there are still a lot of supporters who believe in that way.
“I know there are a lot of supporters who understand we should have won the last derby (in the League Cup Final). So it's about now the next one. Would I have preferred to do it with a full squad?
“Yes, but it's not the case now we're going to go in with the full squad. I'm going to find solutions for that. And we're going to go hard and I count on the supporters to give this extra energy to the players also to get to this result. I also believe that they will do that like they did also in a good way in the last games.”
Rangers fans certainly don’t like the look of the league table. Clement insisted his players need to ignore it tomorrow though. He said: “You cannot look at the gap because then you lose yourself. We need to look at every game to take the maximum out of it.
‘We're very disappointed that we didn't do that in the last two games. Those goals against us made a really big difference in those games. The team showed resilience to fight back, not only with creating chances but also scoring goals.
“I cannot look in all the heads but it would be stupid to think only about the gap and not to think about the next game. It's about the next game, always in football. If you're in front or you're behind, it's always the case.
“We knew it would be a tough season in that way. We're building a squad with a lot of young players and against a squad who already has a core for several years, who spend a lot of money to create more depth in their squad.
“Because they knew there would be much more games than it was in the past to make a rotation also in that way in the squad to keep everybody fresh.
“We knew that and we go full out in the challenge. I knew also before the summer that it would be a really, really big challenge. I took the challenge and I take on the challenge with every bit of energy in my body and I will continue doing that.”
Clement might be trying to look at the bigger picture but there’s tunnel vision when it comes to Old Firm games. Without a win in six personally, and seven as a club, Rangers might have a mental problem against their old foes.
But Clement said: “Did you see a psychological barrier nine days ago in this Cup final? No. It's conclusions afterwards. These players have been going full out for that. And it's the same way now.
“Of course, it's not the ideal situation that you need to mess up your defence again. But the team is going to go full to get the result and they have the quality also to do it. They did it nine days ago. The circumstances didn't fall for our side that day. They went full for it and they're going to go full for it on Thursday again to get this victory.”
Clement will need it if he’s going to come back from the dead.
