Three reasons why Philippe Clement can’t defend himself if he gets sacked by Rangers

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Philippe Clement was already a man under intense pressure at Rangers after a 2024 that started brightly and got progressively worse.

The manager hangs to his job by the thinnest of threads and it will be a surprise if new CEO Patrick Stewart doesn’t have a list of potential replacements already lined up for the Ibrox hot seat.

If the gap at the top of the Scottish Premiership table isn’t enough, here are three reasons why Clement can’t argue if he is given his P45 by Rangers.

• READ MORE: Rangers set to appoint second former Manchester United man to key role

Three reasons why Philippe Clement can’t argue Rangers sacking

The first one is an obvious one in that Clement has yet to beat Celtic in seven attempts, including two cup finals.

In fairness, the two finals were probably where Rangers gave their best Old Firm performances since the Belgian took charge only for luck, officials and individual mistakes to be the difference.

Not that he is bothered, when asked if he was worried about his derby record and if he is feeling the pressure, he said:

“No, zero. It’s not about me. It’s about the club. It’s about the players. Nothing.

“It’s not about me. It’s never been about me in this job, in whatever club. So about that, zero.”

Rangers away form continues to falter

Rangers top the Scottish Premiership table when it comes to home form, but when it comes to results away from Ibrox, 11 points from a possible 27 is, and has been in the past, a sackable offence.

Despite this, Clement doesn’t fear for his job:

“Yes, they made a really clear statement about that already in the beginning of the season and now also with the people involved,” the Gers boss said when asked about the threat of being sacked.

“Do you think nothing has changed now? Do you think with another manager we would not have made mistakes today defensively? Was it a problem that the structure of the team was not good? So, those are things that a board needs to decide.”

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	CelticCeltic	18	16	2	0	52	4	48	50
2	RangersRangers	18	11	3	4	31	13	18	36
3	AberdeenAberdeen	19	10	4	5	31	26	5	34
4	Dundee UtdDundee Utd	19	8	7	4	28	20	8	31
5	ST MirrenST Mirren	20	8	3	9	27	32	-5	27
6	MotherwellMotherwell	19	8	3	8	25	33	-8	27

Clement has self-inflicted Rangers defence crisis

One of the things that Clement said he was going to fix was the problem with injuries at the club.

On one hand he did, but the current centre-half crisis was preventable and lies firmly at the feet of the manager.

When the transfer window closed, Rangers were left with John Souttar, Leon Balogun, Robin Propper and Neraysho Kasanwirjo as the main options.

All but Propper are either susceptible to spending time on the sidelines or have had major surgery in the past.

In short, Clement gambled on players with a history of not staying fit, staying fit.

He had the chance to sign robust and resilient defenders who could cope with the demands of playing 60 games a season and didn’t.