'Rangers locked in vicious cycle as Clement departs'

A year ago, almost to the week, Rangers beat St Johnstone 3-0 and hit the top of the Scottish Premiership table, a seven-point deficit against Celtic now transformed into a two-point advantage.

It was their ninth win in a row under Philippe Clement, a manager who had come to Ibrox the previous October via Belgium where his reputation had been built on league titles won with two different clubs.

At his first attempt, he won the League Cup with Rangers and lost just one of his first 26 games in charge. The club, it seemed, had their great redeemer. "As a group we were scrambling," said goalkeeper Jack Butland of life before Clement. "We were running down a cul-de-sac into a dead end."

Clement, said Butland, had changed everything, Only he hadn't. He didn't have the stability above him - off the pitch the club lurched like a boat on choppy waters. He didn't have much of a budget for players - savage amounts of money had been wasted on poor players and downsizing has been the order of the day for a while now. As he attempted to build a young team with sell-on value in the future, while remaining competitive in the present, his team was callow, inconsistent and flaky.

And then there were the weaknesses in his own management, not all that visible in the beginning but more and more apparent as time went on, as Celtic disappeared over the horizon and Rangers' hair caught fire in their desperation to chase them. His words remained defiant but his strength eroded.

He didn't have the players or the managerial dexterity to consistently overcome the low blocks of inferior teams. This season, even when you cut him some slack of excluding games against Celtic, Rangers have failed to win on 10 different occasions against nine different domestic sides with a fraction of their budget.

Even when winning they've never been far away from calamity. Even when automatically qualifying for the last 16 of the Europa League - with highly credible performances against Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United included - the scent of fury always hung in the air over Ibrox. You always knew that turbulence was just around the corner.

As big and as tough as Clement was in those early days, he was slowly chewed up by the pressure of trying to steer the ship out of the dock when it was already tied to the harbour wall.

When Clement first came under pressure there was clear word from his bosses at Ibrox that they were going to keep faith in him, that no good would come from sacking another manager and starting again.

The point was made behind closed doors that if Clement's CV arrived at Ibrox in anonymous form then the directors (and the supporters) would jump at the guy. They already had him. And the board were determined to keep him, or most of them at any rate.

They wanted Clement to rebuild the club, to make the dressing room young and vibrant and potentially valuable in the transfer market. There might be years where no trophy was won, but they'd deal with that. The fans might be disgruntled but they'd stay strong in the maelstrom, for the greater good down the line.

It was a position that was never really going to hold, not when you're on the kind of run Clement has been on, not when your away form is so bad and your team so lacking in belief and direction.

And so it begins again - a new manager hunt leading to a new broom in the dressing room. Coaches moved out, coaches moved in, players exiting, others arriving, compensation, a new style of football, a fresh start. Another one.

Clement bites the dust after Saturday's pitiful home loss to St Mirren following on from the mortifying Scottish Cup exit to Queen's Park, which came uncomfortably soon after dropped points against Dundee, Hibernian and Motherwell, which was just three days after, well, a defeat by St Mirren.

Even those who presented boardroom insecurity, downsizing, poor recruitment and a mentally weak dressing room as a nuanced defence of Clement ran out of road. There is no comeback to some of the performances of late. No manager was likely to survive all those domestic losses and draws, even if there's a lot more to Clement's failure than just Clement.

The new manager will have to pick up the debris. He has a dressing room of doubtful character, players who can deliver against better opposition in Europe - when there's no pressure and the game is open - while lacking the steel to see off weaker teams at home, when they have to win in a dogfight. Put simply, they can't be trusted.

Clement had big issues in plotting against domestic opponents who sat in all day, but to lay the blame solely at his door would be to give his fragile players - many on chunky salaries - a pass they do not deserve.

Good players can problem-solve on the hoof. Frail ones look to the manager to do it for them. The Rangers dressing room has too many followers and nowhere near enough leaders. You wouldn't want many of them in the trenches with you.

It remains to be seen how many of them the new manager actually wants. No regime change comes cheap. As the lawyers go through the process of the club potentially changing hands, Rangers are locked in a vicious cycle. Managers come and go, but everything else stays the same.