At the beginning of March, Philippe Clement probably thought he had the Rangers job sussed as his side sat top of the Scottish Premiership table and within touching distance of a treble.
Fast forward six months and the manager must be wondering what has happened at the club in a summer where he has had to contend with not being at Ibrox, a struggle to sell unwanted players and Todd Cantwell handing in a transfer request.
The playmaker left it late to move to Blackburn Rovers before Rangers paid £3.4m to Sassuolo for Nedim Bajrami to replace him, an exit that Cantwell has now explained.
- READ MORE: Five transfers Rangers missed out on who could have been Ibrox heroes, three could still sign
Todd Cantwell tells all about Rangers exit
The 26-year old was in fine form and one of the main reasons why Rangers caught and passed Celtic in the league, however, injury saw him miss key games and he was never the same when he returned to fitness.
Speaking to Sky Sports, the former Gers number 13, predictably, wanted to set the record straight:
“There were a few things that changed around the club,” said Cantwell.
“Obviously with the manager going, the backroom staff goes with them. It felt like a different place. Listen, when a new manager comes in, they have to put their stamp on things and last season we had a bit of a bounce where we got ourselves in a position last season to really go on and do well.
“I have full respect for the manager and the management at Rangers now, but I didn’t believe it was the right place for me to be and they are personal reasons.
“But you don’t have to look too far behind tactics and the way a team plays, and how you get the best version of yourself.
“At 26, if you’re not sure what the best changing room for you to be in is, then ultimately you’ll probably bounce around quite a bit. I made the decision, it is a bold decision, and yeah let’s see how it unfolds.”
“It was his (Clement) decision to tell the press that it was my decision (to leave Rangers). We’d spoken internally for a while, before the season finished, and we couldn’t find a happy medium for both.
“The one thing I’m desperate to clear up – which I touched on in my Instagram – is that I never ever said I didn’t want to play for Rangers Football Club. That never came out of my mouth and never would.”
Clement more than gave Cantwell a fair chance
To get it out the way, Clement never said that Cantwell didn’t want to play for Rangers, he said that it wasn’t his decision that Cantwell wasn’t playing for the B team but Ianis Hagi was.
When Cantwell handed a transfer request in, Clement was left with few options.
Could he trust a player fully who didn’t want to be there?
Hagi is a different story in that it appears to have been a mutual agreement for him to find a new club.
Good or bad, Cantwell always wore his heart and was never going to leave Rangers without telling his version of events.
It sounds like when Clement and Cantwell have been in discussions about his future, they had differing views about how they saw it.
Looking at actions, rather than words, Clement never held any grudges with Cantwell and, when fully fit, would play him in his preferred position.
Even when the Gers boss had to hook him early in the first half against Aris Limassol, he praised Cantwell in the post match press conference for doing a job for the team out of position.
He then started him in the next game at number 10.
Cantwell was Clement’s first choice attacking midfielder and the manager clearly didn’t to sell him.
He could have become an Ibrox hero, instead, when things got tough, he downed tools and demanded a move.
When a player leaves a club under a cloud, there will always be varying reports, when it happens three times to one player, it’s easy to jump to conclusions when determining who to believe.
