Rangers season has been one that few will have seen anything similar to in recent history, even Philippe Clement’s short spell in charge has been a rollercoaster.
He inherited a seven-point deficit, closed it down, and then lost it again with a squad that reverted to type despite winning the first silverware of the season.
There is obvious frustration with how Rangers campaign panned out and Philippe Clement has come in for criticism due to his Old Firm record, but he has been defended by a pundit who knows what they are talking about.
Rangers collapse not the fault of Philippe Clement
Derek Ferguson fully appreciates that he didn’t have the Rangers career that his talent deserved.
Arguably, he had more natural ability than his little brother Barry, however, he didn’t quite have the same narrow-minded focus.
He also knows what it takes to succeed at Rangers though.
Speaking on the Open Goal podcast, Ferguson was quick to defend Philippe Clement after Kevin Kyle tried to apportion blame to the Rangers manager for their late season collapse:
“Do you know what happened with the players?
“The players got to the stage where they had the opportunity to go and win it, mentally, they’re not strong enough.
“I think he worked wonders at times, with that group of players, honestly, I do because, if Michael Beale had stayed there, I tell you what, they would have been down in fourth or fifth.”
Clement will get chance to prove he’s the man next season
Ferguson is right.
There was no reason for players like Connor Goldson, James Tavernier, John Lundstram and Todd Cantwell to go from flying, to failing to beat Motherwell at Ibrox and both Ross County and Dundee away from home.
The squad is made up of a core of players who have done this before and new ones who are nowhere near the required standard.
Add this to an injury list that was regularly in double figures and how Clement got Rangers into the title race at all is a minor miracle.
At Hampden, Clement’s tactics showed that he had learned from mistakes in previous derbies and was more pragmatic to the extent that Jack Butland’s only meaningful involvement was to make the mistake that cost Rangers the game.
Under Beale, Rangers weren’t creating chances and the tactics would frequently resort to the full-backs throwing crosses into packed defences.
It started badly at Kilmarnock and didn’t get any better, if anything, as demonstrated by the 3-1 home defeat to Aberdeen that ended his tenure, it go worse.
Fourth or fifth might be an exaggeration, but second would have been a harder fight and the title race certainly wouldn’t have gone down to the final derby of the season.
That Si Ferry and Paul Slane agreed with Ferguson says it all.
