Chris Boyd has given a sobering assessment of Philip Clement’s future prospects as Rangers manager, insisting a change is needed after the club fell further behind Celtic in the Scottish Premiership.
Rangers’ miserable away performance continued on Thursday as they were held to a 1-1 draw at Dundee, leaving them 15 points behind their rivals at the top.
They started the game at Dens Park with just three wins from 10 league games away at Ibrox and were unable to complete a turnaround to improve their record following a goalless second half after Vaclav Cerny canceled out Oluwaseun Adewumi’s opener.
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Highlights from the Scottish Premiership match between Dundee and Rangers.
The result gave further ammunition to those who believe Clement should spend time at Ibrox, with the club’s away fans left unhappy at the full-time whistle.
“It’s just excuses after excuses,” former Rangers striker Boyd said. Sky Sports. “Rangers have a team that needs to wipe the floor with Dundee but they are holding on.
“Thirteen of the 33 points have come at home. You can talk about progress but there is nothing. They say the players are tired and confidence is low. A week ago or 10 days ago they absolutely destroyed Celtic. They destroyed them.”
“And you struggle with confidence. Before the Celtic game we lost two, drew one and lost one. There was no confidence struggle in the Celtic game.
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Rangers manager Philip Clement reacts to the 1-1 draw with Dundee amid growing pressure from fans.
“And now we’ve drawn two games again and we’re lacking confidence going into those games. It’s crazy.
“If you look at the club now, the pitch is in disrepair. There is no pattern of play, there is nothing. “You always refer to the Celtic game as Rangers’ best performance this season.
“But we know it can’t just be a one-off. It’s a real shame that Rangers are in this position.
Rangers’ Hamza Igamane responds to Dundee’s opener.
“And you can see that no money was spent. Money was spent. Yes, there were cost savings, but money was spent.
“There is no improvement. We said the injuries were also improving. I mean, they are actually worse.
“You can move players around and say you have to play extra minutes. Guess what? You’re a football player, that’s what you get paid to do, playing time.
“No progress at all. It’s over.
“It’s over now for (Rangers CEO) Patrick Stewart. I’m telling you now because those are the last two away games we’ve played.”
“Those fans will get to the stage where they are tired enough and not coming to the games and you will see the real problems start to materialize for Rangers, because this cannot go on.”
Sutton: Brendan popping the champagne.
Dundee’s Oluwaseun Adewumi celebrates after scoring.
Chris Sutton on Sky Sports:
“Philip Clement has to take responsibility, but it is also the players on the pitch who have the knowledge and understanding of how to win games.
“When you look at the Rangers squad you think, ‘Does this jersey fit all these players?’ I’ve said before that the mindset of the club is breaking down and nothing has really changed. And that’s not just Philip Clement’s problem. no.
“This has been going on for years and look how boring the performance was tonight, Celtic are laughing at them.
Rangers gave up first place at Dens Park.
“Brendan Rodgers, he will be popping champagne laughing at them this evening. It is embarrassing that we are in early January and Celtic are 15 points ahead. It is shocking and surprising.”
“We spoke before the game and me and Chris (Boyd) thought Philip Clement should have left a long time ago, but they are now at a sort of crossroads because can this continue? The club is regressing.
“So are we going to look at that or are we going to look at the bigger picture and not just Patrick Stewart’s one game against Celtic, or are we going to look at the odd game in Europe?
“Clement will tell you that Celtic have a bigger budget, but Rangers can’t afford to lose 19 points against a team with a much smaller budget than them and he never mentions that.
“We’re hearing excuses every week now and it’s not enough. It’s time for him to take ownership and he won’t do it.
“But these Belgian waffles will continue and will not stop until a decision is made about it.”
Clement: I have ‘200%’ the support of the board.
Philippe Clement has claimed the Rangers board are “200 per cent” behind him. When asked whether the board, which has appointed Patrick Stewart as its new CEO, still supports him 100%, the Belgian boss said: “Yes, 200%.
“We talk about everything every day, about January, next season, everything. Of course the fans are unhappy.
“We are unhappy. We are all unhappy to lose these three points. When we are good, when we play well, the supporters are always behind us. So today was not a good game.”
Vaclav Cerny celebrates after scoring to make the score 1-1.
“So I understand they are unhappy about that. I know these supporters don’t give up on moments where we show quality. It’s about us showing quality on the pitch and they are always right behind the team. “
“So it’s our job to do that as quickly as possible and that starts on Sunday to show quality again on both sides of the game – offensively as well as defensively.
“Defensively we were better today compared to our last away game, so that’s a positive. Clinton Nsiala’s first game for Rangers is a positive.”
“But in the end, what matters is the result. A lot of points have come in the last two or three weeks.”
