Philippe Clement continues to battle to save his job as Rangers manager and Ally McCoist has cautiously endorsed a title-winning boss replacing him at Ibrox.
Clement still feeling the heat at Rangers
It’s fair to say that it has been an up-and-down season for the Gers to date, with plenty of wins thrown in, but also many too many disappointing performances and results. On Sunday, Rangers booked their place in the Scottish League Cup final after a 2-1 win over Motherwell at Hampden Park, as they set up a mouthwatering meeting with rivals Celtic next month.
Despite this, there is no question that Clement is still under an enormous amount of pressure to keep his job, considering his side are now nine points adrift of both the Hoops and Aberdeen in the Scottish Premiership title race and hardly looked convincing at the weekend either.
Potential successors to the Belgian have been mooted in recent times, with Malmo manager Henrik Rydstrom linked with coming in and beginning a new era at Ibrox. Now, another name has been mentioned, courtesy of Rangers legend McCoist.
McCoist talks up Gerrard to replace Clement
Speaking on talkSPORT [via Rangers News], McCoist got behind the idea of Steven Gerrard returning to Rangers as manager, but was quick to point out that he wouldn’t necessarily solve all the problems going on at the club.
“He would be welcomed back. He won the title in his time at Rangers and he would be welcomed back. But I have to tell you Jeff [Stelling] the problems at Rangers go far greater than the manager at this moment in time and a lot deeper. I think they need to get things sorted at the top level before anything else.
“It works its way down if things aren’t right at the top. No full-time chairman, director of football or chief executive. There is none of that happening at this moment in time and that has to happen. I don’t care what anyone says, it must have an effect on the pitch if things are not good off it. So in answer your question, would he be welcomed back? I think he would, yeah. But he clearly has his work cut out over there [Saudi] at this moment in time.”
Opinion is likely to be split when it comes to McCoist’s comments, with some liking the idea of a Gerrard reunion, not least because he won the Scottish Premiership back in 2020/21 – the club’s only title triumph since the 2010/11 season.
That said, the 44-year-old’s reputation has been damaged since a failed spell in charge of Aston Villa – Unai Emery has shown him up hugely – not to mention being booed recently by fans of current club Al-Ettifaq, following just one win in his last seven matches at the Saudi Pro League side.
Al-Ettifaq
47
1.38
Aston Villa
40
1.18
Rangers
192
2.15
There would clearly be plenty of fans happy to see Clement moved on and Gerrard come back, and while that could prove to be successful, there would be risks to it, especially with so much going on high up at the club.