Running statistics do not accurately reflect Celtic’s domination since the turn of the century.
Philippe Clement will stick to his guns. He has no choice.
The Belgian believes Celtic’s recent cup final victory at Hampden demonstrates the close rivalry between the two clubs. However, the more Rangers perceive this to be the case, the less likely they will be to take major action, and the wider the chasm will likely become.
Statistics will demonstrate that there isn’t much in it. After all, Celtic’s total number of major trophies now stands at 119. This is only one more than Rangers currently stand on. However, those running totals do not accurately reflect Celtic’s domination since the turn of the century.
It all feels a little bit like a sleight of hand, just like it took a penalty shootout to separate the two of them over the weekend. Rangers risk deluding themselves if they choose to perceive it otherwise. The reality is, since the new century, Celtic have been busy obliterating Rangers in the competition for domestic cutlery.
Over the past 24 years, Parkhead has won 51 major trophies, including 18 league crowns, 12 Scottish Cups, and 11 League Cups. Rangers, on the other hand, have only won 18 titles in the same time frame, including five Scottish Cups and seven League Cups.
It is not even close. And for years, while Rangers were clinging to that manufactured, spurious claim of being the most successful football club in the world, a lofty assertion with which the likes of Real Madrid would have grounds to argue, they now can’t even claim to be the most successful football club in their own city.
Clement’s post-cup-final claim that there is no big disparity between the two sides should be viewed as a declaration of defiance uttered by a man on the losing side of a largely hopeless war.
Of course, as the man now carrying the can, the boss is expected to make it appear as if he and his squad are in the middle of the struggle. And, certainly, he deserves some significant credit for the recent uptick in performances, which allowed his club to take Celtic all the way to the line before Sunday’s thriller at the national stadium was determined by the brutality of a penalty shootout.
Clement may have even given himself and his supporters reason to feel that when the two face off again at Ibrox on January 2, he will finally defeat Brendan Rodgers for the seventh time.
There are evidence that the Light Blues manager has discovered something in recent weeks, as he has put his belief in players like Ianis Hagi, Nico Raskin, and Hamza Igamane after earlier dismissing them as unworthy of a position in his first-team roster.
But even if Clement eventually cracks the Rodgers code next time around – 20 derby days with only one defeat – it will amount to little more than a brief, ephemeral relief, gained against the backdrop of Celtic’s overpowering dominance.
When Rodgers lifted the Premier Sports Cup during his latest ticker-tape procession, he won his tenth trophy in two stays at Parkhead. Rangers’ total has only increased by three in that period. With the Northern Irish manager’s club leading the league table, it’s highly probable that he’ll add at least one more dazzling item to the cabinet before the season ends. And possibly two.
When Rodgers needed to turn to his bench on Sunday, as bodies started to collapse all around, he was able to throw on the likes of Arne Engles and Adam Idah – two substitutes worth a combined total of £20million.
When Clement reached inside the Rangers cabinet, he only found Cyriel Dessers and Kieran Dowell. And strangely, both of these players went missing at the critical moment when Jack Butland stepped up to take his team’s fifth penalty.
Clement asserted later that Dessers was sixth on his list of takers, but even if that were true, what does it say about his No. 9?
It can only be concluded that Dessers did not want to take one in regulation, or that Clement believed his custodian was a safer bet. In any case, it’s an awful look that exemplifies the quagmire the Rangers have gotten themselves into in recent years.
Yes, they gave Celtic a better game than anyone could have logically imagined, but they couldn’t muster enough to win. And the reality is that this near thing only adds to the narrative that too many of these guys have a soft underbelly that allows them to be comfortable with their status as the “close but no cigar” brigade.
For the time being, Clement will battle on as best he can, knowing deep down that he has gotten himself into a fight he has no hope of winning. It will eventually be someone else’s time to pick up the chalice, and they will most likely make the same empty promises of jam tomorrow.
But the truth is that Rangers are caught in a rut of underachievement, stemming from a boardroom that has never functioned properly since Craig Whyte’s sharp plastic shoes first stepped through its doors.
So, whether Clement or anyone else is in charge, the same issues will continue to stymie whoever is in charge until the club is reset by some type of fresh thinking at the top or, better yet, a full regime change. To put it another way, if Celtic’s recent small wobble in form worsens to the point where their lead at the top of the table narrows heading into the new year, the manager will simply go into the market to recruit more quality reinforcements.
Meanwhile, Clement will have to make do with what little he is given. And so on, the gap will widen.
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