200% backing from the Board? Stewart warns blundering Clement that results must pick up or else

After drawing at Dundee on Thursday night Phil Clement told the media that he had the 200% backing of the Ibrox board of Directors.

At a secretive media conference this morning Patrick Stewart made it very clear that results need to pick up soon for the Belgian Beale.

Two wins in eight matches has led to angry statements from the Rangers Supporters Association and Union Bears with protests expected tomorrow when St Johnstone visit Ibrox.

A seven point gap was enough to get Micky Beale the sack, Giovanni van Bronckhorst was sent gardening when the gap reached nine points, strangely Clement goes into tomorrow’s match trailing Celtic by 18 points.

Under Clement Celtic have trashed the ridiculous claim of being the Most Successful Club in the World, at some stage in April the hoops are expected to be celebrating their 55^th title.

As well as delivering dismal results on the park the Belgian boss has become a laughing stock off it with a string of favoured excuses for failing against clubs with one less than 10% of his wages budget.

Stewart was reluctantly forced into meeting the media today, initially it was planned to discuss the January transfer plan but recent events have turned attention onto the floundering manager.

The on-message Rangers Review reported:

So cutting to the chase, we are backing Philippe at this time as a board. It’s about taking a deeper look at the issues, addressing those problems, and staying focused on building a stronger future for the club. Changing a manager isn’t a silver bullet solution. You know where I’ve worked previously, and that isn’t something that has been effective there, it’s not effective at a lot of football clubs where there’s constant change of manager.

What I do need to do, and what the board are supporting me with, is uncovering the underlying issues and addressing those. And there’s been quite a lot of supporters’ comments, and one that particularly jumped out at me was, you know, some supporters’ comments are, we want to change a manager.

Stewart added:

I’ve been a football fan my entire life, I’ve been in that position, we’re also all frustrated. And particularly if I look at the away results, you know, the record is there, it’s been discussed, it’s not good, and it’s not what’s expected for Rangers. So we are working with Philippe to address consistency issues, and I’m also not going to speculate on what happens if results don’t improve.

I spent time with Philippe, I spent a lot of time with Philippe, a lot of time at Auchenhowie, I was with Philippe last night, and we discussed the need, the imperative for results to improve. If results don’t improve, obviously I can’t give Philippe any cast iron guarantees. He and I have both been around football long enough to know that isn’t the case.

Equally, I’m not going to get into how many games does Philippe have to save his job, that’s not what we’re about. We’re about helping Philippe to identify why is there the inconsistency and let’s address that. And again, to be clear, sticking with Philippe isn’t about trying to avoid a tough decision.

The format of today’s media conference is unknown, it is unclear if any questions were asked or if the new CEO just waffled out a collection of comforting sound bites with no meaning.

Clement never held a media conference to discuss tomorrow’s match when St Johnstone come to Ibrox to take on his exciting young side.

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