Chris Boyd has given a downbeat assessment of Philippe Clement’s future prospects as Rangers manager, claiming a change is needed after the club slipped further behind Celtic in the Scottish Premiership.
Rangers’ miserable away form continued on Thursday with a 1-1 draw against Dundee leaving them 15 points behind their rivals at the top of the table.
They started the game at Dens Park with just three wins in 10 league games away from Ibrox and were unable to complete a turnaround to improve that record after a goalless second half followed by Vaclav Cerny canceling out Oluwaseun Adewumi’s opener .
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Highlights from the Scottish Premiership match between Dundee and Rangers.
The result provided more ammunition for those who believe Clement’s time at Ibrox must come to an end, with the club’s away fans showing their displeasure at the full-time whistle.
“It’s just excuse after excuse,” said former Rangers striker Boyd Sky Sports. “Rangers have got a team that should come here and wipe the floor with Dundee but they keep going.
“Thirteen points in 33 away games is a shame. You can talk about progress but there is none. You talk about players who are tired and low in confidence. You absolutely destroyed Celtic a week ago or 10 days ago – you destroyed them.
“And you’re fighting for confidence. You lose two, draw a game and lose a game before the Celtic game. There was no confidence battle in the Celtic game.
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Rangers manager Philippe Clement reacts to his side’s 1-1 draw with Dundee amid mounting pressure from fans.
“And now after that, you’ve brought two draws again and there’s a lack of confidence in them. It just doesn’t make sense.
“I just look at the club at the moment and on the pitch, it’s broken. There’s no patterns of play, there’s nothing. You always refer to the Celtic game as Rangers’ best performance this season.
“But it can’t just be a one-off, we know that. It is an absolute disgrace that Rangers are in this position.
Rangers’ Hamza Igamane responds to Dundee’s opener
“And you can see that you didn’t spend any money. Money was spent. Yes, there was cost cutting, but money was spent.
“There’s no improvement. We talked about injuries getting better as well. I mean, this is really worse.
“You can talk about moving players and having to play extra minutes. Guess what? You’re a football player. That’s what you’re paid to do, is play minutes.
“There’s absolutely no progress, it’s done.
“Now it’s over (Rangers chief executive) Patrick Stewart, because I’m telling you right now, these are the last two away games we’ve been.
“These fans have had enough and it will get to the stage where they stop coming to games and then you will see the real problems start to materialize for Rangers because this cannot continue.”
Sutton: Brendan cracks open champagne
Dundee’s Oluwaseun Adewumi celebrates after scoring
Chris Sutton on Sky Sports:
“Philippe Clement has to take responsibility, but also the players on the pitch have the knowledge and understanding of how to win games.
“You look at the Rangers squad and think, ‘does the shirt fit many of these players?'” I’ve said before that there’s a losers’ mentality at the club and nothing has changed just for Philippe Clement.
“This has been happening now for years and years and years. And you see how out of place that performance was tonight. Celtic are laughing at them.
Rangers conceded first at Dens Park
“Brendan Rodgers, he’s going to open the champagne tonight, he’s going to laugh at them. It’s a shame that we’re at the start of January and Celtic are 15 points off the top. That’s shocking and it’s amazing.
“We were talking before the game and me and Chris (Boyd) thought Philippe Clement should have gone a long time ago. But they are at a crossroads now as to why this can go on? The club is going backwards.
“So are we going to look at that or is Patrick Stewart going to look at the bigger picture and not just a game against Celtic where they raise the game or, you know, the odd game in Europe?
“Clement will come out and talk about Celtic having a bigger budget, but Rangers shouldn’t be dropping 19 points against teams who have a much, much smaller budget than them, and he never mentions that.
“We hear the excuses every week now. And it’s not good enough. And it’s time for him to take ownership, but he won’t.
“But this Belgian waffle will go on and on and on. It won’t stop until a decision is made on him.”
Clement: I have “200 percent” support on the board
Philippe Clement has claimed the Rangers board are “200 per cent” behind him. Asked if he was confident the board, which has new chief executive Patrick Stewart, is still behind him 100 per cent, the Belgian boss replied: “Yes, 200 per cent.
“We talk every day about everything, about January, about next season, about everything. Yes, of course the fans are unhappy.
“We are also unhappy, we are all unhappy to lose those three points. The fans are always behind us when we are good, when we play good games. So today was not a good game.
Vaclav Cerny celebrates after making it 1-1
“So I understand they are unhappy about that. I know these fans, they don’t give up the moment we show quality. It’s about showing quality on the pitch and then it’s right behind the team, always.
“So it’s our duty to do it as quickly as possible. That starts on Sunday, to show quality again on both sides of the game. Not only offensively, but also defensively.
“Today, defensively, it was better compared to the last away games. In that way, a positive. The game that Clinton Nsiala played for his first game for Rangers, a positive point.
“But at the end of the day, it’s about results, of course. A lot of points have been lost in the last two or three weeks.”
