Patrick Stewart had a lot of explaining to do after Glasgow Rangers suffered an embarrassing 1-0 defeat to Queen’s Park in the Scottish Cup on Sunday afternoon.
The result at Ibrox means the club’s hopes of a domestic trophy are over, yet we aren’t even midway through February.
This is unacceptable. On a domestic scale, this defeat was the worst for the Light Blues since they were knocked out of the Scottish Cup by Hamilton in January 1987, despite Graeme Souness’ Ibrox revolution in full swing.
Going further back, the 1967 Cup defeat to Berwick is still talked about among the older generation of supporters. Perhaps this loss to Queen’s Park will be this generation’s Berwick.
Last month, however, Stewart publicly backed Philippe Clement, despite a poor spell, saying:
“I need to make some tough decisions, it comes with the role, but I am committed to making the right ones for Rangers, not just the popular ones. So cutting to the chase, we are backing Philippe at this time as a board.”
When quizzed on whether he would consider his own position after the Queen’s Park debacle on Sunday, Clement said: “No, totally not.”
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How it's all unravelled for Philippe Clement at Rangers
At first, appointing Clement appeared to be a wise choice by the board. This was a manager who had won three Belgian league titles in a row between 2019 and 2021, the first with Genk and the latter two during his time with Club Brugge.
This success saw AS Monaco lure him away from his homeland in January 2022. Despite a strong start to life in the principality, Monaco struggled during his first full season in charge, and he was sacked in June 2023 after just 73 matches in charge of the club.
Following Michael Beale’s sacking in September 2023, several candidates were interested in taking over at Ibrox, but it was Clement who was appointed.
Qualification for the knockout stage of the Europa League while securing the club’s first League Cup since 2011 ensured his first few months were successful indeed.
He even managed to claw back a seemingly unsurmountable gap in the Premiership title race by the start of March.
However, this is when things started to unravel. A defeat to Motherwell at Ibrox looked like it was a blip, but when the Gers lost to Ross County and then drew with Dundee in the space of a few days, their title ambitions were over.
Losing in the Scottish Cup final to Celtic ensured it was a season to forget. Would 2024/25 be better?
The short answer is no. The seeds were sewn after going out of the Champions League qualifiers to Dynamo Kyiv, a team who ended up finishing the Europa League group stage with just four points.
Michael Beale
43
31
2.26
92
Van Bronckhorst
68
42
2.01
135
Steven Gerrard
192
124
2.15
407
Pedro Caixinha
26
14
1.81
49
Mark Warburton
82
55
2.18
188
European form has been solid, qualifying for the last 16, but this shouldn’t deter from just how abject the club have been domestically.
In the top flight this season, the Gers have won just 16 of their 25 games as they trail Celtic by 13 points with just 13 games left.
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Overall, Clement has won 54 of his 84 games in charge of the Light Blues, a record which quite simply, isn’t good enough.
Stewart must make the decision to move on the 50-year-old sooner rather than later. Otherwise, the atmosphere at Ibrox is going to turn toxic before long.
The question is, who could be the next manager of Rangers when he does leave? There have been a few interesting names mentioned anytime a vacancy has arisen, but there is someone who has been linked quite a few times…
The best Clement replacement at Rangers
When Beale was sacked in 2023, a certain Kevin Muscat was reportedly one of the candidates who were on a shortlist to take over from the Englishman. He was pipped by Clement, but there is no doubt his name will pop up again in the near future.
Muscat has been hailed by one of the best managers in the world, as Pep Guardiola dubbed his style of play as “dynamic” back in 2023 amid the Australian’s links to the vacant Ibrox hot seat.
He tends to operate with a 4-3-3 system, which has seen the former Rangers defender win league titles in Australia, Japan and China.
The 51-year-old has a distinctive style of play which could benefit those currently at Rangers. Right now, Clement doesn’t appear to have a tactical philosophy, resulting in the players turning to a long ball game often, which hasn’t exactly produced the best results.
Across 375 matches in his managerial career so far, Muscat has led his teams to 197 wins, scoring 709 goals in the process, and recording 1.77 points per game.
He joined Shanghai Port in December 2023 and enjoyed a wonderful first season in China. Not only did he lead the club to their second league title in a row, but the manager also won the Chinese Cup.
He certainly has a penchant for success, something which the Ibrox side are in urgent need of right now.
Clement’s future has been discussed since October and Muscat was even linked again with the Rangers job last November, although his focus was on the AFC Champions League.
When Clement does depart, the same old names will rear their head again as they always do, but Muscat should be the only candidate that Stewart considers.
He played at the club for a single season, winning the treble during 2002/23, while his results as a head coach are superb since taking to the dugout in 2013 with Melbourne in Australia.
His contract at Shanghai Port expires in December this year, which means the club will need to pay a compensation fee to land the 51-year-old.
This could prove to be a stumbling block. But if there is a way of hiring Muscat without spending too much money, then the board should do all they can to bring him to Glasgow.
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