Peter Martin backtracks as he highlights the big issue holding up Ibrox appointment

On Tuesday afternoon Peter Martin had Philippe Clement jetting in to Glasgow ahead of his Ibrox coronation.

Yesterday the PLZ anchor was casting doubts over when there is funding in place for a January war-chest.

It seems that after being in London since Monday morning John Bennett and James Bisgrove are no closer to appointing Micky Beale’s successor.

Since he raced down the tunnel after losing to Celtic on September 3 Beale has been a dead man walking but six weeks down the line it seems that the club is unable to strike a deal with Clement or Kevin Muscat.

Yesterday Martin told PLZ viewers:

It’s the organisation’s biggest call coming up. For a manager, not for me the biggest decision. The biggest decision is, how do I fund this manager?

If you’re inheriting a group of players that couldn’t beat Limassol, I mean it was an embarrassment. But if you’re inheriting that group, you have to try and get something out of them. He has to be given the chance to get funds.

Here’s the big dilemma. I say they’re leaning towards Clement, Andy [Devlin] sees [Kevin] Muscat. The attraction of Muscat is they may think he might be able to get some of that market over in Asia which can come over and replicate what Ange Postecoglou has done.

The stalemate in making an appointment is almost certainly down to discussions over the transfer funds available in January.

While a new manager will be expected to get more out of some players it is a bit of a stretch to sustain a challenge in Europe and to Celtic while carrying Sam Lammers, Cyriel Dessers, Kieran Dowell, Jose Cifuentes, Ben Davies, Rabbi Matondo, Ridvan Yilmaz and others tied down to long term contracts.

With each passing day it looks more and more likely that Steve Davis and Alex Rae will be in charge for next Saturday’s match at home to Hibs.