At least Philippe Clement now knows where he stands by the dawn’s early light at Ibrox. On shaky ground.

The Hunted One’s fate is in the hands of the Special One after Rangers were drawn against Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce in the Europa League’s round of 16. Uncle Sam might be on the way to rescue Rangers from financial hardship and build a new tomorrow – but the club’s prospective owners from San Francisco will presumably offer no promises regarding security of employment for the manager, or anyone else, in the event of business finally being done.

The proposed takeover is all about removing those associated with the failures of the past which made the club vulnerable to regime change in the first place. And that includes Clement as much as it does the assortment of boardroom members who, according to former Ibrox chairman Dave King, will “live on in infamy” because of their shortcomings when it came to mounting a viable challenge to Celtic.

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The Belgian is under threat because he has been involved in several cases of breach of promise since assuming control of team affairs. The dismal 2-0 loss at home to St Mirren cranked up the pressure on Clement.

The Scottish Cup loss to Queen’s Park, however, stands alone – miles apart from everything else – because it looked like a clear-cut case of professional suicide. And Rangers chief executive Patrick Stewart referring to that result as a “source of shame” to the club did nothing to reverse that suspicion. But two league titles in succession lost to Celtic while imploding under pressure would hardly present the kind of profile Rangers’ new owners would be looking for either.

It begs the question of what Clement could possibly do to contradict the theory he’s a redundancy waiting to happen. Beginning with the most pressing inquiry – what if the manager fails to get his side beyond the Turkish giants in the Europa League?

Stewart also made it clear last week that continued participation in the competition had prevented him from removing the Belgian in the wake of a “disastrous” Scottish Cup loss to the Spiders. Would elimination from Europe then signal the fact Clement had effectively outlived his usefulness?

Or, in fairness to the man, would winning the Europa League salvage his reputation and his job? I have given my radio colleagues a laugh by stating a personal belief that Rangers can make it to the final of the competition.

The prospect of Mourinho on the horizon doesn’t cause me to abandon my forecast. The Portuguese wouldn’t be at a club like Fenerbahce if he wasn’t a managerial talent on a downward trajectory.

Jose would still be in one of the elite leagues in Europe if he was capable of being what gained him his reputation in the first place. And the biggest peculiarity of Rangers’ season is the split personality that makes them domestically erratic while excelling on a continental level.

Clement had better hope that remains the case – and that Jose doesn’t throw a star-spangled spanner in the works.