The only conclusion one can possibly draw from events at Rangers over the past week is that the club is in a much worse state behind the scenes than anyone has dared to imagine.
Speaking to the Rangers Fan Advisory Board before last Sunday’s match against Queen’s Park in the Scottish Cup, chief executive Patrick Stewart stated there was ‘so much else to fix’ in the football department beyond focusing on Philippe Clement’s suitability for the manager’s job.
By common consent, a truly catastrophic defeat to the Championship side was the moment when the last trace of supporters’ faith in the Belgian evaporated.
Five days on, however, Clement addressed the media ahead of Sunday’s game at Tynecastle in full ‘business as usual’ mode, spouting the familiar refrains about the hurt he felt, his long-term project and the need to win fans back. Crisis? What crisis?
It was a facsimile of many other media briefings he’d given this season. The only difference, of course, was the context.
It begs a simple question: If the former Monaco manager wasn’t the biggest issue in Stewart’s in-tray in the past six days, who or what is?
Philippe Clement has carried on as usual ahead of this weekend’s league game against Hearts
Rangers chief executive Patrick Stewart (right) says there is ‘so much else to fix’ at Ibrox
In the absence of so much as a peep from Clement’s paymasters since Sunday’s disaster, Valentine’s Day at Rangers’ training ground became Groundhog Day. The narrative is now on a loop.
The Belgian’s desire to talk up past successes and future ambitions was understandable and predictable. But everything kept coming back to last Sunday and you sense it always will.
Whether or not Clement really appreciated the historic depths to which the side have sunk under him is open to question.
‘We had good results,’ he insisted. ‘You guys talked a lot about the away record and it was true also domestically.
‘We had a good game in Dundee United, scoring three goals there in the last couple of weeks. Three goals, four goals, five goals, domination, good games against Tottenham and Man United.
‘Qualifying in the first eight for Europa League was above expectations. We had a good win against Celtic at Ibrox. So, a lot of positives.
‘This was a very negative one. It’s not a reflection of everything that happened this season with this group of players. We need to get back to the level that they had a week before. We need to work on that.’
Clement’s difficulty is that such modest improvements are forgotten in an instant when calamity strikes as it did.
James Tavernier’s late penalty miss consigned Rangers to a catastrophic defeat by Queen’s Park
His side are perfectly capable of winning at Tynecastle this weekend and setting off on another run domestically. But what would it really prove?
Queen’s Park is now the reference point for his many critics. It has eroded whatever faith remained in him.
Increasingly, he is no longer seen as a solution to the multitude of problems but a major problem in himself.
‘It’s challenging with the resources that we have for the moment to rebuild the squad,’ he repeated.
‘That’s my frustration also after all these weeks where you see the team growing. All of you saw that and all of you have written that.
‘You have this game where you don’t put this ball over the line enough and you don’t show enough quality to do that in a better way…
‘We were so many times in that situation. But we didn’t show enough quality, all of us together. So, yeah, that’s a big frustration. So, I understand the frustration of the fans also.’
The ire of season-ticket holders was initially aimed at Clement and his players.
Once the dust began to settle on one of Rangers’ darkest days, the focus of the anger has shifted to the club’s hierarchy whose reaction to the whole debacle has been radio silence.
‘It’s not my thing to say if somebody should have reacted or not,’ Clement insisted.
‘I do my job and clearly I didn’t do my job well the last game that we didn’t get the result.
‘The week before, or the month before, was clearly better and I’m very motivated to do my job very good this week to get the result at Hearts and all my focus is on that.
‘Of course, I know this is a big blow for the fans, the same as for us.
‘We wanted to go far in the cup. We had bad feelings after the League Cup, where we went into the final. This cup was a really, really big goal for us, for me.
‘It’s also something I talked about a lot with the group, the last weeks and months. It’s not acceptable.’
One week on from recalling how he regretted playing a weakened team when Monaco were knocked out of the French Cup by second-tier Rodez two years ago, the same charge was being levelled against him.
It’s an accusation Clement was keen to dispel, even though he made four key changes inside 15 minutes of the second half, including the introduction of Nico Raskin and John Souttar.
‘After the game, you can always say it was the wrong team,’ Clement said. ‘I said in the past at one time that I had too many young players. It was totally not the case now.
‘So, afterwards, you can always have this discussion. You don’t know with another one (different team selection) if we would have had better results. At the end, we didn’t get the results that we should have had.’
There are two theories as to why Clement remains in the post. The first is that the club cannot afford to sack him. Stewart refutes this although you would expect him to.
The second is that they are waiting for Europe to run its course. The gold star on Clement’s jotter remains finishing eighth in the Europa League group phase and moving straight to the round of 16.
While you would not bet against Rangers going a round further, he’ll get little credit for that. Another barren domestic season will act as a millstone around his neck.
‘I think the fans want everything and they’re allowed to want everything,’ he said.
‘I think this club is also about that. If you just focus only on domestic and European games, you show no quality. They will also not be happy.
‘So, it’s every game. That’s what it’s about being here.’
Europe has been the outlier of an otherwise grim season. From the Ibrox building works fiasco through to Dinamo Kyiv then last Sunday, the low points have considerably outweighed the positives.
Given his time again, though, Clement is adamant he would not have sought to explore the other offers he had from the Middle East last summer.
‘No, otherwise I would not be here because you can’t step out of the story,’ he stressed.
‘I know why I made that decision and it’s because of this synergy with the fans and because I know how great this place can be if you have success, if you win trophies.
‘So, there is my hunger, my desire for all of that. That’s a choice I made before I came compared with other teams who were interested at the moment and it’s still the case here.’
Kick-off: Sunday 12noon, Tynecastle.
TV: LIVE on Sky Sports Main Event
Referee: John Beaton.