Former Celtic winger Aidan McGeady has backed Rangers manager Philippe Clement as he blasts Dundee’s management of their waterlogged pitch.
Rangers’ Scottish Premiership clash with Dundee at Dens Park was called off at the 11th hour after a double pitch inspection.
But Rangers were left furious with a lack of communication about the situation as fans travelled in their thousands and the team prepared for the game.
It wasn’t until a Rangers kitman arrived at the stadium that the club found out and the fall-out has sent a ripple through the game.
Aiden McGeady agrees with Philippe Clement
Speaking after the match, Philippe Clement also let rip about the optics of the call off with Rangers’ televised visit to Dundee the only SPFL match called off all weekend.
It’s also the fourth time the stumbling Dens Park staff have failed to produce a worthy surface this season and Aidan McGeady was reacting to the comments on the BBC’s Scottish Football Podcast.
Claiming that he agrees with Philippe Clement, you know Dundee have made a major balls-up of things when such a prominent ex-Celtic player is so openly critical.
“I listened to his comments when the game was called off and I’d have to agree with that,” said McGeady. “The communication is extremely poor.
“I don’t think it’s just that. I think there’s a lot of frustration around many factors and the SFA and the SPFL.
“You’re going to have fans travelling to the game, the team is there, which is fair enough, but there’s a lot of other things that come into consideration as well.”
After going into potentially moving fixtures to later in the year, McGeady added: “The lack of communication is extremely poor. If Rangers didn’t have any communication at all and had no foresight into that or any inclination that the game was going to be called off, then that’s really poor.”
Ex-Rangers striker on Dundee pitch call-off
Aidan McGeady isn’t the only pundit who’s been backing up Philippe Clement either, with Kenny Miller also speaking on the programme.
Whilst the ex-Rangers striker was a tad more diplomatic, he described the lack of Dundee communication ahead of the call-off as “the main source of frustration” around the situation.
“The main source of frustration is around the communication of actually what was going on,” said Miller.
“You can’t help the weather. I don’t know, could Dundee be better prepared for these types of situations? Particularly after it being the fourth game that’s been called off this season.
“The main source of frustration is the fact that nobody had let Rangers know that there was any issue and it was their kitman who got in contact to let them know there was going to be a pitch inspection.
“When you leave it that late, obviously you’re bringing your fans into and the travelling situation with thousands on the road already on their way to watch the game.
“For that late a postponement, that just feeds into it. The main source is the lack of communication, Rangers felt they should’ve been made more aware of the situation and if there was going to be any postponement (Dundee) could’ve communicated through social media also.”
The call-off means Rangers will now be forced to play their rescheduled fixture with Dundee later in the calendar.
It also means that Rangers drop into second place in the Scottish Premiership, with Celtic now potentially set to visit Ibrox as league leaders.
