The telltale signs Clement knows his Rangers time is up as body language expert spots 'anger' hiding in TV interview
Philippe Clement knows his Rangers time is up according to a body language expert – who pored over his Premier Sports interview and and spotted signs he's feeling the pressure.
Clement was fuming after his side's Scottish Cup exit to Queen's Park and faced some difficult questions when speaking on TV in the immediate aftermath. He was quizzed over fury from the stands, his substitutions, whether his players could have given him more, and the million dollar question – is there a way back for him after one of the worst results in the club's recent history?
A visibly frustrated Clement let his players hear it and grew more irked and animated as the interview wore on. And body language expert Darren Stanton told OLBG: “He is fairly confident at the start of his interview, more so than some of the other managers we have looked at under pressure this season, but he is in turmoil. I think he does suspect that he could be for the chop. When he’s asked about it his blink rate increases and he does have quite a bit of anger going on, but directed at others.
"It’s interesting that he seems to be blaming the team more than himself. He uses pronouns like he instead of I, and they instead of me, so he is shifting liability on to the team. When he responds to the question about his team, he seems to have been put on the back foot by it and we see more of that anger again as he goes on the defensive.
"His eyebrows come together, there’s furrow lines between his eyes and his nose, and his eyes squint a little bit. That’s a facial expression of anger as if to say 'how dare you ask that question?'
“He is putting on a reasonable front but as we go deeper into the interview we do see him shift in his anchor points. He shuffles around a lot more. He blinks a lot more and he does a lot of looking down to his right.
"We call that an auditory internal dialogue, so he’s being very conscious about what he says, more so than in the earlier parts of the interview. By the end of the interview it was like the journalist had him pinned in a corner."
The final question was the big one – can a Rangers manager survive ending a season trophyless? It's a fate he will almost certainly face unless he can pull the ultimate cat out of the bag and go the distance in the Europa League. And on that question, Stanton said: “Clement didn’t want to answer.
"When he pushes back against the line of questioning, that’s what we call a linguistic deflection. He doesn’t want awkward questions that he feels he has to walk back or side step later given the situation he finds himself in. Overall, I think in his heart I don’t think he believes he is going to stay in his job. It’s been one many mistakes, and one too many losses, even before this big shock against Queens Park.”
