Rangers' three written-off men bite back as club's key decision gets vindication

The Ibrox side trailed leaders Celtic by 14 points in the Premiership and the groundswell against manager Philippe Clement was growing. Some Rangers fans wanted blood. A month on, some still do - but their numbers have surely diminished. The January job the big Belgian has done is to be lauded.

Amid the arrival of a new chief executive in Patrick Stewart and the suppressing nature of Celtic’s all-conquering performances domestically, it would have been easy for Clement to sink rather than swim at the start of 2025. The 50-year-old has always stuck to his party line that the restoration project at Ibrox requires time and patience, but everyone knows those two commodities are in short supply in Govan. Actions speak louder than words.

So if Clement allows himself a brief look back at January, he can do so with immense satisfaction. He started it with his first-ever Old Firm victory, a 3-0 walloping of Celtic, two days in and ended it by improbably directly qualifying for the last 16 of the Europa League after overcoming Union Saint-Gilloise 2-1. Finishing in the top eight of that particular tournament is a right feather in the Clement cap.

In between, detractors will point to draw at Easter Road against Hibs (3-3) and at Dens Park when Dundee held them to 1-1 stalemate. The away form in the league remains a concern. After that match on Tayside on January 9, Clement was barracked by a section of the travelling support who had simply had enough. Yet Rangers have responded with five wins - including three-goal hauls against Aberdeen, St Johnstone and Dundee United. The only defeat was narrow, losing in stoppage time to Manchester United.

Rangers have played nine times in January with no free midweeks. Clement has been shorn of several players through injury, and has been forced to become extremely creative when assembling a defensive unit. His No 1 goalkeeper Jack Butland and his two best centre-halves in John Souttar and Leon Balogun all suffered injuries. At times he was deprived of key midfielders Nicolas Raskin and Mohamed Diomande plus his most creative player in Vaclav Cerny. There has been no breathing space for Clement in a suffocating environment.

Rangers end the month having cut the deficit with Celtic to ten points (albeit Brendan Rodgers’ side have a game in hand), still in the Scottish Cup and in the hat for the Europa League’s last 16. That eighth-placed finish and avoidance of the play-off round gives Clement two free midweeks in February and banks Rangers just over £4 million in prize money. Everyone knows the state of Rangers’ finances. Stewart and the board must have been rubbing their hands in the stand above Clement at full time.

So it would have been easy for him to come out swinging in his post-match press conference after the USG given the achievements. Clement has taken a lot of blows recently and nobody in the room at Ibrox would have begrudged him a few punches back. “I’ve told you before, it’s not about me,” was his stock answer to whether he’d shut up the critics.

Rangers are far from brilliant, far from the finished article, but nor are they as bad as some are making out. Nor is Clement an average manager. You do not win titles with Club Brugge and land a job at Monaco if you do not have something about you. The biggest test of a head coach is how they deal with adversity and Clement, to his credit, has responded emphatically in the past 30 days.

Bar a Celtic collapse of epic proportions, Rangers will not win the league. They may not even get their hands on silverware. That is so often the barometer of success for an Old Firm manager but a trophyless campaign may not cost Clement his job after his success in Europe. A last 16 tie against Anderlecht, Bodo/Glimt, Fenerbahce or Twente is winnable too. Sights should be set on the Europa League quarter-finals.

Given the club’s financial position, Rangers are not expected to do much business - if any - before the transfer window closes. Clement has Souttar back and will hope Balogun, Dujon Sterling, Ridvan Yilmaz, Oscar Cortes and Danilo will return soon to augment his options. Rafael Fernandes, on loan from Lille, has swelled the defensive ranks. The squad is in reasonable shape with all of them available.

Rangers’ cause is also helped by the rejuvenation of two other written-off men. Captain James Tavernier has filled in at centre-half in the past two European matches, a position far from natural to him given his tendencies to be an attacking full-back, but his return to prominence has been eclipsed by striker Cyriel Dessers, who put in one of his best performances of the season against USG.

The Nigerian has been booed by his own fans in January but sitting on 18 goals for the season, he looks hungry, confident and a man that Rangers simply cannot let go in this window. Replacing the 30-year-old would be very difficult, especially as he has a good rapport with current golden boy Hamza Igamane in attack. Clubs in Italy want Dessers but he should stay put, and any sceptics should get behind him.

Rangers are not good enough to not cough up poor results between now and the end of the season. Clement still has work to do to convince those who believe his team lacks identity, style and the clinical edge that separates champions from contenders. There will be bumps in the road.

However, given the turbulent environment Clement has worked in for the past 12 months at Ibrox, could anyone do much better? Regardless of where you stand on that one, the Belgian has proven this month that Stewart and Co’s vote of confidence was the right move.