Pressure mounts on Clement as the Beale comparisons make for glum reading

When credible cases are being made in favour of Micky Beale you know that you are in trouble.

While Phil Clement gets an easy ride from the media messengers ordinary bears are less than convinced about his exciting young team and how they need time to develop and progress.

The former Monaco boss might get away with pleading poverty but the FACTS don’t stack up with a very healthy net spend over two transfer windows as well as expensive loan acquisitions.

In January Fabio Silva came in from Wolves on EPL wages, stunk the place out with his diving antics then celebrated on Instagram as Celtic were presented with the SPFL Premiership trophy.

Mohamed Diomande came in from Danish side Nordsjaelland in January with a commitment to make the deal permanent in the summer for £4.5m. Straight away the young African was getting the Cantwell and Raskin comparisons with his form quickly nose-diving after a few defeats from Celtic.

This summer the best part of £8m has been spent on Jefte, Robin Propper, Hamza Igamane and Nedim Bajrami with a £4m commitment made to convert the loan deal for Oscar Cortes into a permanent deal from Rennes next summer. Euro 24 star Vaclav Cerny was brought in on loan from Wolfsborg on Bundesliga wages.

Clement has been well funded over two transfer windows with commitments to spending just under £20m from two transfer windows that have raised around £1m from selling Scott Wright and Todd Cantwell.

Inheriting Beale’s squad Clement took the club into top place in the Premiership before their bottle crashed with a complete lack of influence coming from A Proper Manager on the touchline. One year on Beale signings Jack Butland and Cyriel Dessers are fixtures in Clement’s team lines with Dujon Sterling playing a number of roles and getting a contract extension.

On successive weekends he staged a heart-thumping lap of honour after drawing with Celtic followed by a tearful race to the away dressing room at Ross County as Don Cowie stood around waiting for a sporting handshake.

With his bizarre media conferences mixing far fetched statistics and performing the Can Can to illustrate penalty incidents Clement is becoming increasing desperate to justify his extended contract and increased salary.

Already his record is worse than Beale, his CV has kept the mob at bay but if further ground is lost in the SPFL Premiership or another Europa League hammering is inflicted the bears will be demanding change with an autumn managerial sacking the tried and tested method to keep everyone happy ahead of the company AGM which is likely to be in early December.