Ibrox upheaval exposes Clement’s task, and Celtic announces a £17.8 million deal: view

Rangers manager Philippe Clement has a big Celtic shaped problem sitting on his desk at Ibrox.

And the ex-Club Brugge, AS Monaco and Genk manager knows it.

Born winner Philippe Clement would never shirk a challenge and, despite having the opportunity to leave Ibrox, has dug his heels in at Rangers in the aim of eventually overcoming our Old Firm rivals.

There’s a first time for everything, after all.

But whilst Clement probably wouldn’t have had to beat Celtic to win the Scottish Premiership title last season, this campaign will most certainly be different.

With the Rangers manager adamant the challenge this time round is even bigger than in the last campaign, where he took over the Gers seven points behind, the latest news coming out of Celtic Park shows precisely why.

Rangers gap highlighted by latest Celtic financials

It’s often said that only one club in Glasgow can be doing well at any given time.

The dynamic of the Old Firm duopoly at the top of Scottish football is so that narratives shift regularly with one side always in the ascendency and the other, routinely falling apart.

The reality however is that Rangers have once again succumbed to Celtic’s dominance with chatter about crisis at Ibrox certainly not far from the truth.

Off the park, Rangers are without a chairman or a CEO, with Dave King back in the picture claiming there’s a ‘significant’ gap between either side of the Old Firm.

On it, Rangers have seen the exits of 16 players from last season’s squad, with the eleven who were signed to replace them a mixture of young talents and relative unknowns.

Things are moving forward on the pitch but Philippe Clement routinely talks about the project in terms of years, not months.

Following the release of Celtic’s latest accounts, it gives an inclination as to why.

As chaos and uncertainty envelops the leadership of Rangers, our Old Firm rivals remain the picture of stability, banking a pre-tax profit of £17.8m and finishing the year with £77.2m in the bank (BBC Sport).

Peter Lawwell also reckons the Parkhead side boast the most valuable squad in their history, nodding to our Old Firm rivals’ much more serious, and much more successful, player trading model.

Philippe Clement faces huge Old Firm challenge

The reality for Rangers fans is that the club is coming through, and in many respects is still in, a tumultuous period which is the culmination of years of leadership problems.

Ever since Rangers lifted the title in 2021 the club has stood still, apprehension over investment being supplemented by Ross Wilson’s penchant for ‘big names’ and even bigger contracts.

Celtic let slip their grip on Scottish football once, you can be rest assured that with such resources behind them they will do everything in their power not to do it again.

The Belgian has been mentally preparing supporters for a long-haul project in its infancy.

With Rangers’ corporate management structure also in tatters, the scale of the club’s issues and of the challenge in Glasgow has been laid increasingly bare this week.

Star Scotland pair’s remarkable debut helps new club win while teammate recovers from injury quickly.

Rangers captain to stay after repeated links to Turkey as Dundee retain interest in free agent…

Rangers captain James Tavernier has turned his back on a potential Turkish exit to remain at Ibrox. (HITC), external

Former Rangers skipper Barry Ferguson says the abuse James Tavernier was subjected to by some fans after the recent Old Firm loss “went way over the score”. (Daily Record), external

Rangers and Aberdeen are waiting for the SPFL to set a date for a compensation tribunal to settle a fee for midfielder Connor Barron, having been unable to come to an agreement over a valuation for the 22-year-old. (Daily Record), external

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers can develop summer signing Arne Engels into a future £40m transfer, reckons former England star Owen Hargreaves. (Scottish Sun), external

Scott Fraser remains a target for Dundee to fill the gap left by Luke McCowan’s departure but the free agent midfielder has other offers to consider. (Courier), external

On-loan Aberdeen striker Kevin Nisbet sets his sights on being the top scorer in the Scottish Premiership after getting off the mark with a last-minute winner in his last outing. (Press & Journal, external – subscription required)

Hearts should be looking to challenge Rangers for second place despite a “horrendous” start to the season, says former Tynecastle and Ibrox forward Kevin Kyle. (STV), external

Midfielder Beni Baningime is adamant that players must take responsibility for Hearts’ poor results and stresses the squad are fully in support of head coach Steven Naismith. (Edinburgh Evening News), external

Finnish goalkeeper Antti Niemi, now 54, insists moving from Rangers to Hearts in 1999 was the best career decision he ever made. (Football Scotland)

Fergie makes an unpopular injury claim about a Gers striker.

Rangers have had a serious problem with injuries for the past few seasons with Philippe Clement determined to put things right this season.

The squad looks better in terms of health with only Ridvan Yilmaz and Rabbi Matondo out for any prolonged period of time, but it is the absence of Danilo that has raised a few questions.

The manager still has a tough job in his hands with players who are injury prone unlikely to have a sudden physiological metamorphosis, however; the Brazilian striker’s need to go under the knife is another that he could have done little about.

Danilo absence is no Rangers conspiracy

Barry Ferguson, speaking on the Go Radio Football Show, isn’t so sure that the 25-year old’s prognosis is as good as is being made out by Rangers:

“He is not in the Europa League squad for the games, that tells me that he is going to be out for longer than a month.

“I don’t know exactly what the injury is, it might be a reoccurrence of the knee injury that he suffered because it was a serious knee injury.

“That is disappointing because a lot of the fans are quite excited because it has been a bit of stop start to his Rangers career when he has come in.

“He has looked really good before he actually got that injury. Yes it is a blow because they are very light up top, very light.”

Clement has responsibility to balance Rangers striker issue

Philippe Clement couldn’t have done much more to gradually reintroduce Danilo back into competitive action.

The Gers boss was keen to avoid seeing the £6m signing miss anymore time on the sidelines.

Given the need for a clean up, it makes sense for Danilo not to be in the Europa League squad.

He won’t be expected to play twice a week and can instead focus on recovery and building fitness between games.

Hamza Igamane looked sharp at Parkhead and will soon be expected to start games in rotation with Cyriel Dessers.

There is no need for Dessers to play every game.

Danilo isn’t back at square one, he suffered a set back but his match fitness was at the stage where he was ready to start more games.

His recovery shouldn’t be a long one.

What will be an issue is if Clement continues to play Dessers instead of Danilo and starts him in midweek too for the Europa League.

A lot of the current problems aren’t down to him, however, this one is firmly under his control.

Brendan Rodgers is predicted to repeat Celtic’s unbeatable season, and Parkhead manager is “back on” for ten straight games.

The Hoops have made a perfect start to the new season – with last Sunday’s 3-0 win over Rangers seeing them five points clear of their city rivals at the top of the table

Brian Graham reckons Brendan Rodgers can lead Celtic to ANOTHER invincible season and even believes the Hoops will go on and win the next 10 Premiership titles.

During the Irishman’s first spell as Parkhead boss, he memorably spearheaded the club to a domestic treble in the 2016/17 season where Celtic remained unbeaten throughout the whole campaign. The quest to win 10 league titles in a row was ended by Steven Gerrard’s triumphant Rangers‘ side in 2021, but since then the Hoops have lapped up the last three Premiership crowns – the latest of which was won by Rodgers.

The champions have made a sublime start to the new season, with last Sunday’s 3-0 victory in the first Old Firm derby of the campaign seeing them top the table – along with Aberdeen – with maximum points from their four games. Rodgers’ squad has been bolstered by the deadline day arrivals of Arne Engels and Luke McCowan and pundit Graham can see Rodgers replicating the incredible feet he managed seven years ago.

Speaking on Clyde Superscoreboard the Partick Thistle striker said: “I think Brendan Rodgers could take over again and Celtic could be on for 10 in a row, that’s my opinion. I think Celtic will be invincible again this year, I just do. I think they have came out absolutely flying and they have recruited really well.

“Last time I was on the show I spoke about Brendan Rodgers wanting quality. He got the quality he wanted and I think they are just going to go from strength to strength now.”

I know Rangers manager alternative directly, who was disappointed to miss out in 2023. Here’s what occurred next.

Craig Moore knows Kevin Muscat well and fears the Ibrox side missed a trick by opting for Philippe Clement

Kevin Muscat was ‘devastated’ to miss out on the Rangers job to Philippe Clement after interviewing twice – but now the ship has sailed on him ever returning to Ibrox.

That’s according to a man who knows him well and fears the Ibrox board may have missed a trick in bringing their former player back to the club. Rangers faced a crossroads after Michael Beale‘s sacking in October last year, and it was initially their former midfielder Muscat at the forefront. But in the end, the job was handed to Clement, who started well and threatened to take the fight to Celtic early on.

Muscat, then Yokohama F. Marinos manager after replacing Ange Postecoglou, took a different path. After winning the J-League in 2022 and finishing second in 2023, he took over at Shanghai Port in China, and currently has them top of the Chinese Super League after 24 games

But as Clement comes under fire after a rocky start to the season was compounded by a miserable defeat to Celtic, might Muscat have been the man they should have gone for? His former teammate and personal friend Craig Moore thinks so.

He told Go Radio: “He had two interviews at the time and he lost out and he was devastated to lose out at the time to Philippe Clement. He thought it was a great opportunity for him and it would have been a great job but Kevin now is doing a great job in China and that ship has well and truly sailed.”

Speaking back when Muscat was first linked, Moore admitted he was no neutral when it comes to his old Ibrox pal who he played alongside in the 2002/03 season. He said at the time: “It’s a hard one for me because I know Kevin Muscat well. He’s a great mate of mine. I’ve been an admirer of his work for a while. He’s gone into Japan and done a wonderful job. What people don’t understand over here, he got a squad that was Ange’ squad and they think it’s easy.

“They’ve got the ninth biggest budget in the J League – it’s a midtable budget. He won the league and the equivalent of the charity shield. They lost to Vissel Kobe last weekend so they’re sitting second in the table.

“He lost six or seven players over the summer that had to be replaced from within. So he’s punching massively. His teams play entertaining football, score goals and they create. He’s a great option for Rangers as far as I’m concerned.”