Soccer Football - Scottish Cup - Final - Celtic v Rangers - Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Britain - May 25, 2024 Rangers' Philippe Clement looks dejected after the match Action Images via Reuters/Jason Cairnduff
Seven weeks on from collecting his losers medal at Hampden Phil Clement is still convinced that his side were the better team in the Scottish Cup Final.
It seems a desperate move from the ‘Ibrox’ boss as he prepares for a new season in which there is a strong chance that he will be sacked before the clocks changed.
After a four month honeymoon in which he was worshipped as A Proper Football Manager by the media and fans alike the wheels came off the wagon in spectacular fashion.
Following a 3-3 draw at home to Celtic in April there was a lap of honour alongside fist pumping his heart, in the press conference afterwards he discussed his side’s moral victory.
Two defeats to Celtic in May took the hoops onto 118 trophies and kicked off a summer of pain among Ibrox fans as reality kicked in and doubts raised about the once brilliant Belgian.
Speaking to the Daily Record from his side’s Dutch training camp Clement said:
What we have in control is getting better results. We were really close in the Scottish Cup Final and that we were the better team, everybody said it also after the cup final.
A lot of people have forgotten that already now because the result was not there. You first need to get the quality at a certain level and then the results follow. It is always the way.
You can have luck in moments when you get results with less quality but not in the long-term. It is really important now that the club works on something long-term.
It is not only the short-term and looking at that because then you always come into the same problems that have been in the past. A house is not built in one day, Rome was not built in one day. Rangers will not be rebuilt in one day also.
I can say to all the fans that everyone is working day and night towards that. Of course, I understand that fans want results. We are working really hard on that.
We need to build that up to make them stronger, make them better, make them better collectively, better individually. To get good signings in, to get less injuries, to have better prevention, to make them more robust, to score more goals, get less goals against. All these things. Everybody is very busy with that.
The ‘everybody said it also after the cup final’ would consists of those in the Ibrox bubble as they consoled the Belgian who has one draw and three defeats from Celtic on his CV, at least Micky Beale walked away with a victory even if it was only in a dead rubber.
Harking back to a cup final defeat in which the opposition goalkeeper barely had a save to make is the mark of a desperate manager, at this point he should be looking forward to Champions League qualifiers with his squad bolstered by Connor Barron, Liam Kelly, Jefte and Clinton Nsiala with other exciting projects on the way.
It would take a brave man to bet on Clement being in charge at Ibrox again with both Beale and Giovanni van Bronckhorst failing to get past their one year anniversary after the glory of lifting the Pre Season Cup was replaced by the grim reality of failure on the pitch.
James Tavernier, Connor Goldson, Todd Cantwell, Cyriel Dessers, Rabbi Matondo, Ben Davies and Ridvan Yilmaz are with the squad in Holland with no offers coming in for their services. The rumoured £21m bid for Jack Butland appears to have been delayed.
Has no one told him that ROME is a word that is banned at Ipox…That, alone , should get him the sack.
The letter with the £21m bid fir Butland is on the same ship as the steel
I didn’t think they were the better team and neither did any other non hun I know, so wrong again Feeleep!
Do the zombies only sign losers and fannies or do they become like that after contact?
Editor: There is a pattern with van Bronckhorst and Clement, they start of almost sensible then just get swallowed up into the B/S. Beale was bonkers from his time as The Brains Behind Gerrard.
The hun media rewrote the cup final saying you were the better team to try and take some of the heat of you ya slavering c*nt
Advocaat all over again so he is…
EXCUSE – EXCUSE – EXCUSE – EXCUSE – EXCUSE !!!
The peepul at Ibrokes can’t afford to sack the Belgian Beale. It would cost them too much money & they are already in a mountain of debt. Isn’t it ironic that the Belgian Beale talks about not being able to build a team in just one day, when they are having difficulty redeveloping a stand in a number months!
He’s not wrong and we have Lawwell to thank for that.
To be fair – scoring more goals and conceding fewer seems like a really good idea.
HaHaHa, just what I thought. And injuries………don’t pick any up……if you see one, just leave it where it is!
HaHaHa, fukkin clowns, that scumdome is a magnet for them!
“…we were the better team, everybody said it also after the cup final…”
Right, own up: who here said that? Everybody? 🙂
Lurch is a dafty.
Great preparation for the imminent start to sevco’s new season:
talk instead about losing your last game, last season!
To be fair, his head must be spinning?
No player budget, no stadium, a difficult relationship with the Executive Chairman,
etc.