THE interminable wait is nearly over and the change which has been demanded by so many demented zealots for so long will soon be upon us.
Rangers are finally going to sack Philippe Clement as manager? No, the US presidential election will he held on Tuesday. Guys, there are far weightier matters than who occupies the dugout at Ibrox. Aren’t there?
Judging by the fall out to the 2-1 defeat which the Glasgow club suffered at the hands of Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Wednesday night – a loss which left them nine points behind their opponents and Celtic at the top of the William Hill Premiership table after just 10 outings – the fate of the free world pales into insignificance in comparison for many.
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The embattled Rangers directors will, having announced they had made a £17.2m loss in the last financial year on Tuesday, keep faith with Clement for as long as they possibly can in the hope he can turn things around and placate the baying hordes.
Having to pay off the Belgian, who signed a contract extension which ties him up until 2028 back at the start of August, as well as his assistants Stephen Van Der Heyden and Andries Ulderink will cost a meaty seven figure sum and they can ill afford to part with that sort of cash given their fragile off-field predicament.
But if the defending Premier Sports Cup champions lose to Motherwell in the semi-final at Hampden tomorrow afternoon, the calls for him to be removed will become deafening and they will simply have to take action to keep their supporters onside.
Even if they do go through, it now looks inevitable that Clement, whose unfortunate public utterances of late have not ingratiated him to an increasingly disgruntled fanbase one bit or helped his chances of survival any, will be jettisoned at some point in the not-too-distant future. His new-look side is badly lacking in cohesion and identity.
It is, given the vastly superior resources which Brendan Rodgers has to play with over at Celtic, highly unlikely. It certainly didn’t make much of a difference when Giovanni van Bronckhorst was binned two years ago or when Michael Beale was offloaded last year. What is that old phrase about the definition of insanity again?
Much has been made in the last couple of days of how well Jimmy Thelin has done at Aberdeen since arriving in this country in the summer. The Swede lost his best player, Bojan Miovski, in mid-August. He spent in the region of £2m on six new recruits. But he has transformed a side which flirted with relegation last term into a formidable force in the Scottish game.
The Dons have won 15 and drawn just one – the Premiership match they played against Celtic at Parkhead last month – of the competitive fixtures they have had since Thelin took charge.
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They will rather fancy their chances of overcoming opponents who they are level on points with in the top flight in the Premier Sports Cup semi-final at Hampden this evening. So why can’t Rangers emulate their achievement?
But how much has being part of a solvent and stable club helped the former Elfsborg manager to make the impact which he has? It has unquestionably been a major factor. Aberdeen posted a net profit of £1.1m back in November due to the success of their player trading model. The record sale of Miovski will see them move even further into the black.
As is bringing in substantial new investment. The current custodians have offset losses with soft loans for years now. But there is a limit to their benevolence. Could an outside backer make a better fist of things? John Halsted, the American billionaire who is a non-executive director, has held talks about putting fresh capital. Could he, or somebody of his ilk, take on a more prominent role? John Gilligan, the interim chairman, stated back in September that expressions of interest had been received from around the globe.
Promoting a few of their best youth prospects would be worth a try too. Would they really fare any worse than some of the expensive imports they have brought in? Playing them would maybe help a club which has been haemorrhaging money for over a decade now to live within its means going forward. Giving young Scots extensive game time has certainly helped their domestic rivals to flourish.
Failing all that, the Rangers high heid yins could always put a transatlantic telephone call in to Donald John Trump over in the U S of A. His mother Mary Anne MacLeod grew up in Tong just outside Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, the home of the largest Rangers supporters club in the world.
The Donald, the former owner of the short-lived American football franchise the New Jersey Generals, took a long, hard look at buying the stricken Govan outfit during the dark days of 2012 and decided against it. But would he think again? God willing, he will have a lot of spare time on his hands after Tuesday.
