Rangers standout sends heartfelt message as he insists the family’s not for breaking up
It must be a pretty lonely position to be Rangers boss when your side is 14 points adrift of arch rivals Celtic and fans are calling for your head even before a ball is kicked in the Old Firm derby.
But Vaclav Cerny insists Philippe Clement is not on his Jack Jones right now. Everyone at Ibrox is working together to savage something out of this wreckage of a domestic season. Even if it’s just a bit of pride.
Werder Bremen loan ace Cerny has been a standout for Gers this term and it’s not a leap to suggest he’s even carried this side at times. Telling his gaffer he needed a rest before the Motherwell draw has blown into the tale of the festive season but perhaps it was understandable the attacker was feeling a bit clapped out when he could have done with others pulling their weight.
The Czech winger was back doing some heavy lifting again though in the build up to today’s Glasgow shindig with his attempts to put on a united front in the build up. Rangers fans have lost faith – but Cerny is adamant the manager and dressing room are together in their determination to turn this around.
As for the shouts from the supporters for the boss to go, the attacker said: “That’s not my business. I have a manager. I have a gaffer, we all do. We want to win the rest of the games of the season.
“I will say it like this: I think we all are together in this. Me saying this, it’s an honest answer. I see us as a group – not as a manager and a team.
“We all are one and we want to achieve things together. And we want to go for it together. We know what the situation is in every aspect. But we are the ones who are responsible for that.
“Now, the mindset has to be about not dropping points anymore. And trying not to drop points any more. We will then just see what’s going to happen.”
Something needs to happen against Celtic today. These calls for the manager to go will only get louder if Clement fails to get the better of Brendan Rodgers at the seventh attempt.
It might not do much for Gers’ title hopes with the points chasm between the sides. But would would certainly lift the mood around Ibrox. Cerny saw enough in the agonising League Cup shootout defeat to Celts last month to suggest victory is within reach.
And what would that mean? Cerny said: “A boost, a mental boost. There are quite a few games now where we haven’t won against them. The recent one, we were very close.
“It’s a Old Firm game and a huge game for the whole country. Especially for me, it’s going to be the first one at home. You want to get everyone behind us again. This could be a very, very good moment to get a big win.
“We need to show the best version of ourselves. We all saw the last game, the League Cup Final. We were good in the game, a bit unlucky. Therefore, I think it’s logical that we feel that we can win this game. We want to win every game so that counts for this one as well. The game plan, we all will follow and stick together no matter what. Hopefully, all of us will have the best days.”
That’s not been the case over Christmas, where Rangers went down to St Mirren in Paisley and then had to battle back from two goals down for a point against Motherwell.
The talk before Santa came down the lum was beating Celtic to cut the gap down to six and it being game on in the title race on the back of a form revival that seemed unlikely during the ponderous opening to the campaign.
A week later and the old demons are back and the league looks up in smoke. There’s a lot that needs fixed – including these sluggish starts that constantly leave the side playing catch up in games. Cerny said: “I had a feeling that we could manage the games much better than in the beginning of the season, in the away games.
“Although we started well in the last game, it’s just after the goal we conceded for the 1-0 that we just started to do different things than was necessary.
“You see when we go behind, we still manage to have, for example, a very good second half. We are dominant, creating so many chances on the small pitches and worse pitches than we’re used to. Even with all these little things, we still are able to be good.
“But it’s just this mindset we have to have that we need this for 90 minutes in every single game. That’s especially the away games, which are just tougher than the home games. In the end, it’s crazy to see, because we can be very good in the second-half of games. But it’s just the mindset that we need to be dominant and good for 90 minutes every single game.”
Cerny revealed that has also been the message from the manager. He said: “It’s about trying to find the will to be good for 90 minutes – and not need to be chasing the games. When you go behind, you know you need to chase.
“It’s not like we need to have that in our head from the beginning of the game, that we’re going to be chasing. We are old enough, experienced enough, to know how to manage the games from the beginning. But this is just the effort to be consistent in the game.
“Although there are so many games, we are still able to be very good actually. We all see it, but it’s just the thing that we need to do it the whole game.”
