Gary Keown tears Rangers chief John Bennett to shreds after ‘jaw-dropping’ Ibrox turn of events.
After Philippe Clement joined the team, Rangers chairman John Bennett has come under fire from Gary Keown, who questions how the team ever got the manager in the first place.
The journalist with Scottish Mail on Sunday began by highlighting the public altercation with referee Willie Collum. She then discussed the team’s inability to reach a consensus with Celtic on away allocations, and finally the finances at Ibrox.
This tirade, aimed at Bennett, questioned Clement’s motivation for joining the Rangers and implied that, with too much going on behind the scenes, he might already be regretting that choice.
Lord knows how Rangers sold themselves to the former Club Brugge head, Keown wrote in his Sunday column for the Scottish Mail [21 January, pages 94/95]. John Bennett, the chairman, most likely gave him a dose of his tried-and-true “best-in-class” speech.
“A quick look under the bonnet has quickly disabused Clement of the notion he’s in the centre of a well-oiled, fully functional machine.
“The politically-idiotic move of demanding Willie Collum should never referee their games again somehow turned them from having the moral high ground in the row over some atrocious officiating at that last Old Firm game to being the bampots shouting at passing traffic again.
“The inability to sit down with Celtic and work out a solution to away fans being banned from the biggest derby in the country, a stand-off that tarnishes the spectacle so badly, reflects poorly on everyone involved.
“The release of those annual accounts, meanwhile, that showed a £64million wage bill and a net loss of over £4million at the end of a campaign which involved Champions League football and the £20million sale of Calvin Bassey to Ajax were just jaw-dropping.”
Plenty going on behind the scenes
Keown is right when he points to what is a shambles in the background at Rangers. The club has always been very involved in off-field issues, but in recent months they seem to have accelerated to new heights.
Very public rows with referees, to the point where the club demands they don’t officiate any of their games, is not a good look. The Celtic debate has issues on both sides and needs to be resolved, whereas the financial running of the club has been questionable.
Clement should just concentrate on the football and leave people in the background to their own devices; it is not his responsibility to worry about what the club and the chairman are up to behind closed doors at Ibrox.
Despite his brief tenure as Rangers manager, Clement can still be happy with some aspects of the team, and it’s not all bad news at Ibrox. After all, he has only suffered one competitive loss—the one they didn’t want to lose against Celtic.
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