How did Rangers get Philippe Clement so badly wrong? | OneFootball

How did Rangers get Philippe Clement so badly wrong? | OneFootball

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Icon: Ibrox Noise

Ibrox Noise

·1 September 2024

How did Rangers get Philippe Clement so badly wrong?

Article image:How did Rangers get Philippe Clement so badly wrong?

So how did Ibrox Noise (and quite a few others) get Philippe Clement so badly wrong? What made us think he was going to be an experienced winner for Rangers who wouldn’t take nonsense would bring titles back to Ibrox?

It’s simple really – we made the same error with him that we did with Michael Beale, and that’s the ‘low pressure fallacy’.


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Put basically, we were won over by Michael Beale’s record at QPR, in concert with his experience at Ibrox. Particularly at QPR, the fact he’d got second in the table with a fairly unfancied side. When we saw that record, we were sold and were convinced that he could be a solid manager.

Clement? Same deal. We looked at his career record with Brugge and Genk, 3 titles in a row, one cup, and it screamed of a man who knew how to win.

What mistake, what error did we make here?

It’s very basic – both did it in fairly low-pressure environments, where winning and ‘must win’ didn’t exist.

Sure, Brugge are a big club in Belgium, but they are not expected to win every league season. QPR in England most certainly aren’t expected to win every match.

Simple terms, both Beale and Clement shone in low-pressure environments, and made themselves look good.

Both are 100% frauds when it comes to anything higher.

Beale at Rangers fell to pieces, albeit his win record was overall pretty good; it was that second season it crumbled. He was subsequently abysmal at high pressure Sunderland.

Clement at Rangers has been the same – initially strong, but has completely fallen to bits, undone by Celtic 100%. Even Beale did better v Celtic.

Clement at Monaco was the same – he initially did quite well, then fell to pieces – that was his first club of real pressure. We did urge caution over the end of his time in Monte Carlo.

And at Rangers, sorry mate, you’ve been an abject misery – promising the earth and delivering as much as Michael Beale did in the end.

Empty promises and bullsh*te.

Unfortunately, the board are going to have to spend a fortune to fire Clement, because this relationship isn’t working.

We will struggle to give this clown an inch more of our backing, unfortunately.

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