The potential sacking of Philippe Clement would obviously come too late to rescue a hugely disappointing 2024/25 season for Rangers.
Dumped out of the Scottish Cup by second-tier Queen’s Park and 13 points adrift of their Old Firm rivals at the top of the table, Rangers’ only hope of silverware this term comes in the form of the Europa League.
With Manchester United, Lazio, Athletic Bilbao, Eintracht Frankfurt and co also securing a by-pass into the last-16, few would give Rangers a chance of ending the campaign with a continental trophy under their arms.
So, as the pressure mounts on Philippe Clement at Ibrox, any conclusion will be drawn with a fresh start in 2025/26 in mind.
Get it wrong, however, and Rangers could find themselves choking on Celtic’s dust again not only next season but the season after that and the season after that too.
Rangers told they must sack Philippe Clement in order to challenge Celtic
This is the view of Stiliyan Petrov. The Parkhead icon who feels that – if Rangers stick with Clement or bring if they fail to locate a considerable upgrade – the Premiership will once again descend a one-horse race from now and into the considerable future.
Plenty of pressure, then, on the shoulders of Patrick Stewart and co.
“Rangers, what they have to do, they have to go and change the manager,” Petrov argues. “Get a new voice, get somebody who can come and sort it, and you have to challenge the opposition.
“Because if you don’t do it, I’ll tell you what, Celtic will run away with the title for the next three or four years.”
Former Bulgaria international Petrov won four Scottish Premiership titles in seven years in green and white. Though it is easy to forget, given that he remains a posterboy of the glorious Martin O’Neill era, that Petrov was actually brought to Britain by John Barnes.
One of the few successes of the Liverpool legend’s dismal spell in the Celtic dugout.
Barnes lasted only eight months. A la Clement at Rangers, a cup exit at the hands of lower league opposition – Inverness did indeed ‘go ballistic’ on an afternoon where Celtic were ‘atrocious’, to paraphrase that famous Sun headline – proved to be the final straw for Barnes.
He was fired, O’Neill arrived via a brief interim stint from Kenny Dalglish, and the rest as they say is history.
Stiliyan Petrov remembers Celtic recalls John Barnes with Martin O’Neill
“I remember John Barnes getting sacked,” Petrov recalls, thinking back to the winter of 2000. “I remember walking in the next day, the players were relieved because there was so much negativity.
“It was not the right results. Kenny took over for a couple of months and he kind of steadied the ship. We won a cup and everything balanced a little bit.
“But then the change happened, we brought in a manager with big hopes, who brought big players, and he wanted to go and challenge. Martin, from the first moment, was like; ‘We are going to compete, not just domestically but in Europe as well. That’s what we are going to do’.”
A dominant force in Scotland and UEFA Cup finalists to boot, O’Neill was as good as his word.
A quarter of a century later, Celtic’s arch Glaswegian rivals Rangers appear to find themselves in a similar, crossroad-style scenario.
Where they go from here, however, is anyone’s guess. A host of former targets are now in work elsewhere. Pascal Jansen was reportedly on Rangers’ radar but he is now in America with New York City FC.
John Eustace is expected to leave Blackburn Rovers for Derby County, meanwhile, as Frank Lampard settles into the Coventry City hotseat.
