With every day and each passing game, it does feel as if we’re moving rapidly towards the crux of the matter where Philippe Clement’s rocky relationship with Rangers is concerned.

So, when he takes his team to Tayside on Thursday night, there will be very lite left in the way of wriggle room for a man who has been battling to hold onto his credibility for most of these last 12 months, which must be beginning to feel like an eternity. He went into 2024 on the back of a beating from Celtic. He started 2025 by notching up his first ever win against Brendan Rodgers’ side, albeit at the seventh attempt in 12 months.

That rampant 3-0 victory on January 2 came largely out of the blue but, on the back of a titanic Premier Sports Cup Final tussle with the champions at Hampden last month, it was just about enough to steady Clement’s ship heading into the second half of a tumultuous campaign.

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But it was followed up by two further dropped points at Easter Road and further confirmation that the accident prone Belgian can’t be trusted to keep his hands on the wheel whenever he takes his team on its domestic travels. They’ve been clattering calamitously around the country since the start of the season, leaving 18 points at the roadside and if this trend continues at Dundee’s Dens Park then, not for the first time in these last few weeks, all eyes will be fixed once more on the office of new CEO Patrick Stewart.

Ultimately, the former Manchester United heavyweight is the man whose opinion will supersede all others when it comes to what ought to be done with regards to Clement’s short to mid term employment status. And it’s nearly impossible to imagine that he’s not been giving this matter a great deal of thought ever since walking into the post.

It was widely suspected that he chose to clock on for his first day 24 hours after that Hampden showpiece and at the end of a week which also saw Clement come up against Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs in the Europa League. Had the Rangers boss been on the receiving end of two hotly anticipated beatings in that daunting double header, then Stewart’s first act in the job would have looked fairly straightforward.

But Clement defied the odds in both and Stewart has been left to monitor the manager’s progress on a game by game basis ever since. Drop more points in Dundee, however, and the man in charge of making the big decisions may feel compelled to take a wider, more long term retrospective look at this team’s direction of travel over the last year or so.

And, should he choose to do that, Stewart may notice it’s been punctuated by red flags along the way. What Rangers need, moving forward, is a period of steady, irrefutable progress and consistency on the pitch. But Clement’s track record paints a picture of calamity.

The first of these warning signs came in the opening weeks of last year when he began to make noises about the club’s medical staff. Clement didn’t just hint at his own unhappiness at the list of casualties queuing up outside the Auchenhowie treatment room, he publicly declared that plans were in motion to ensure no such log jam would ever occur again.

Even at the time this felt as if he was making an undeliverable promise, unless he had lined up Jesus of Nazereth and Marvin Andrews to take charge of the healing hands department. And what would the scientists have made of that?

Now, 12 months on, Clement’s claims have been made to look plainly ridiculous. If anything, Rangers are currently in the grips of injury pandemic which is making his recent struggles even more pronounced.

Then there was the victory lap after a 3-3 draw with Celtic at Ibrox in April. Clement appeared to believe he had won the title that day when, in fact, it was the start of the championship being surrendered. Red flag no.2.

Since then, stretching over nine months, Rangers have played 15 league games away from home, winning four, losing six and drawing five while collecting just 17 points from a possible 45. And scattering red flags all over the place. One more car crash at Dens Park and Stewart may have to overlook recent green shoots of recovery to focus fully on negotiating the road ahead.