When the final whistle blew as Rangers succumbed to defeat against Kilmarnock, Philippe Clement gave the club’s fans a predictable response.
The Belgian manager finds his coat on an increasingly shoogly peg after falling six points behind both Celtic and Aberdeen in the Scottish Premiership title race.
Finishing second behind our eternal Old Firm rivals is bad enough; the mere suggestion of a 3rd place finish behind Aberdeen has rattled Ibrox cages.
And yet when Philippe Clement faced the music come full time, familiar excuses have begun to grate on a Rangers support who’re slowly starting to turn on the 50-year-old.
When they go, we don’t have to tell Phil how hard it will be to win them back.
But as the dust settles on an abject Rangers display in Ayrshire, it’s not just Clement who is bearing the brunt of criticism.
The uninspiring Ibrox squad are firmly in the support’s crosshairs with not one of them doing enough to forge a meaningful connection, or even a song, in Glasgow.
Rangers fans told signings ‘need time to settle’
Philippe Clement is clear that he needs time to implement his changes at Rangers with the club in the midst of a chaotic period of uncertain overhaul.
The club’s hunt for as many as four new executives is an unwelcome distraction at a time of immense on and off pitch scrutiny at Rangers.
But as the uncertainty persists off the park, on it Clement has claimed it will take time for new signings to adapt.
The defeat to Kilmarnock, Clement believes, is partly down to the fact some of the Rangers squad have never had the displeasure of playing hoofball on Rugby Park’s artificial surface.
“There are a lot of players new here, first time playing at Kilmarnock,” said Clement. “The longer they play here, the more they’re used to the circumstances.
“The longer this team plays together, the better they will become and the more they will learn out of the mistakes made and the good moments also.
“It’s about working hard; working hard, staying together, digging in and getting results.
“That’s the only way to get fans behind you, not the other way around.”
This line about players needing to settle is a mantra we might be prepared to listen to had it not been repeated for years in Glasgow with little to no reward.
Kieran Dowell, Tom Lawrence, Rabbi Mantondo, Ridvan Yilmaz, Danilo, Cyriel Dessers, Oscar Cortes, Mohamed Diomande, Nicolas Raskin, Robin Propper.
Just a drop in the ocean of recent signings for whom this tired old excuse has been wheeled out, time and again.
How long is long enough? Two weeks? Three months? Until October, as Clement previously suggested? A season? Two seasons?
Where are these guys? Where is the end product? Where is the value for money? Where is the long-awaited impact? Where is the reward for our patience?
Time has never proven enough for any of these guys to make the impact required.
Rangers fans are being paradoxically told that the club is signing players who have the required mentality to make it at Ibrox, whilst also needing to give them an undeterminable length of time to settle.
Heck, Ben Davies told us it was somehow acceptable to take two years to get your feet under the desk at Auchenhowie before he left for Birmingham City.
Rangers players blow huge chance to win over fans
Philippe Clement’s comments shouldn’t serve as an excuse for his Rangers team’s latest capitulation on Scottish Premiership duties.
Given the context of the match and our recent form at Rugby Park, there is no excuse good enough for the lack of commitment we saw in Ayrshire from any Rangers team.
More than just the result, it’s that tepid display which hurts the most and has the Rangers fans whipping out the scatter-gun.
With every bluenose out there glued to their screens on Sunday expecting a momentum building victory, they were met with a team who didn’t play like they knew it.
We have a cultural issue at Auchenhowie which comforts players into thinking they have time in Glasgow. They don’t.
Playing for Rangers brings with it monumental expectation and the idea our players need to experience Rugby Park’s artificial surface on a windy Sunday afternoon before they can be expected to a deliver a result on it is, quite frankly, ridiculous.
Rangers need a direct, aggressive approach from players who adopt a never-say-die mentality and who have the superior quality to steamroll these teams. It is not complicated.
This overprotective approach towards players who aren’t delivering and a tepid, languid possession-based system which isn’t working is ultimately going to cost Clement his job.
It did with Van Bronckhorst and Beale.
What we’re seeing on the pitch is not enough to satiate angry Rangers fans who saw a new-look XI with whom they have scant connection let them down big time in Ayrshire.
With Celtic and Aberdeen dropping points on Saturday, victory over Kilmarnock was about more than three points.
Momentum plays a bigger role in Scottish football than most managers would care to admit.
Clement’s team have just blown a huge chance to get fans, who are increasingly disconnected with the club and squad, back onside.
We don’t know how many more opportunities the Belgian manager or his players will have left.
