Succulent Lamb spectacular as Clement shares tear-jerking tale of 6-year-old heartbroken over Dens Park postponement
Fraser Wilson of the Daily Record has delivered a tear-jerking contribution towards The Banter Years with an incredible piece showing that the spirit of Succulent Lamb most definitely lives on.
It is par for the course for legacy publications to drool over whoever is in charge at Ibrox. Mark Warburton was simply waiting to take over as England manager, Mister Gerrard was the obvious successor to Jurgen Klopp while a year ago everyfing that Micky Beale was finking about was treated as the Gospel from a Soccer Revolutionary.
These days the chubby kids coach spends his time on Sky Sports News discussing people that can actually do the job he has failed miserably in.
Succulent Lamb was a product of the Dave Murray era in charge of Rangers when reporters went overboard to describe the magnificence of the Ibrox chairman.
Grand plans for global domination were shared without a dissenting word while the reader was reminded of Murray’s highly successful vineyards in the south of France, his property empires, his multiple business successes and how fortunate Scottish football was to have such a far sighted leader.
In May 2011 Murray shifted his Ibrox empire for £1 with the billionaire, Craig Whyte inheriting the drooling adulation.
Since his appointment at Ibrox in October Philippe Clement has been described as a proper football manager which says more about his predecessors than it does about the former Monaco boss.
With the media hanging on his every word Wilson went into overdrive as he shared the devastation of Wednesday’s postponement of the match away to Dundee with the Record‘s rapidly shrinking army of readers:
The images of Rangers and Dundee officials watching referee Don Robertson plod around a saturated Dens Park ahead of another inevitable call-off were beamed out across the world on TV.
But it was a sight hidden from the public glare at the team hotel back in St Andrews that Philippe Clement reckons really brought home the harsh reality of the farce that is making a joke of Scottish football.
The Gers boss told how he’d come face-to-face with a father and son who had travelled hundreds of miles from Wales to watch their beloved side take, what they hoped, would be another step towards the title.
Tears were streaming down the six-year-old’s face when he discovered there would be no game. If that wasn’t hard enough – it was the second time they had shelled out to make the journey full of hope only to see their excitement drowned by the dodgy Dens surface.
Clement has had to cancel days off for his players and redraw his schedule for the packed next few weeks. But it’s the impact on the punters he feels just as bad.
He said: “You guys maybe don’t understand but we have a very busy schedule, you are preparing everything, training and preparation. The guys almost don’t have any free days. They will have two free days this month. I’ve had to take one off now because we had to change our programme.
“So there’s a lot of things around it. Yesterday when we were in the hotel I saw a father with a small boy, it was the second time that they’ve travelled from Wales to St Andrews for the boy to see a Rangers game and it’s the second time the game’s been cancelled.
“It was a boy of six, seven years old who was crying. There’s a lot of things around that, all the fans coming there from Wales, from England, from Northern Ireland, from all over the place the first time a few weeks ago and now again.
“This is really bad for the image of football in Scotland. Everybody needs to realise that and it needs to be avoided. It’s important to make the right decisions that this cannot happen any more.”
Perhaps if Clement hadn’t been utterly terrified of playing in the midweek ahead of facing Celtic he would have been spared the heart-breaking trauma of sharing an expensive hotel with a six-year-old from Cardiff dragged 400 miles north in midweek by the ego of his Dad.
At the end of this season Clement is expected to clear the streets of Glasgow from litter and graffiti and Phil in every pothole in the country with full coverage in the Daily Record.
Fraser Wilson is a dedicated fan of Queen of the South, Jim Traynor lives for Airdrie and Chic Young is St Mirren daft.
Who is the least trusted referee in Scotland?
Beaton- a back catalogue like no other
Collum- has never had his eyes on the ball
Dickinson- the dangerous rising star
McLean- nothing will beat the Caley Thistle semi
Robertson- Tynecastle was an all-time low
Walsh- Utterly compromised by the day job
