"And now, the end is near" Clement did it his way. Will Celtic finally finish him off at Ibrox on Thursday?

12/30/2024 01:24 PM

This time a week ago, the comeback was back on for the Ibrox side.

Keith Jackson was talking about chinks of light, and the Ibrox fanbase firmly believed they could close the gap to 6 points when they beat us at Ibrox.

Just like they believed if they’d got that damned penalty, they’d have won the League Cup.

Of course, their hubris led them to believe they’d just swat St. Mirren and Motherwell aside.

We usually say it’s the hope that kills them.

But in this case, it’s the hubris that killed them.

One or the other always does.

Fast forward one solitary festive week, and they are now 14 points adrift of us.

They firmly believed it would be 9 points at a minimum.

And that just as they’d swat St. Mirren and Motherwell aside, they’d put us to the sword on Thursday at Ibrox.

Gap down to 6 points, game on!

It’s just a shame that St. Mirren and Motherwell decided to tear up the script, isn’t it?

Now, the scenario is this, even if they beat us at Ibrox, which is a tall order judging by the way they’ve been playing lately, the gap will still be 11 points.

We’ve scored 8 goals in our last two fixtures, securing maximum points since the dour draw at Tannadice.

Just as Joe said in our last podcast, two statement wins were required against Motherwell and St. Johnstone.

We got exactly that.

So, going into next Thursday’s game at Ibrox, you’d have to say that we are the form side going into it.

In fact, we do not even need to win at Ibrox, a draw will suit us just fine.

The pressure rests squarely on their shoulders.

More to the point, it all rests on the shoulders of the Belgian waffler.

Who’s time must surely be close at hand.

Even the announcement of Don Robertson as the man in the middle is not cause for concern.

Despite the fact we know where his loyalties lie.

With Nick Walsh in the VAR room, the SFA’s most competent man is overseeing things from that perspective.

If Robertson decides to be overtly lenient on the field of play, which as we know, he is wont to do, Nick Walsh will be watching everything like a hawk.

As he has shown in the past, he doesn’t seem to have any qualms about calling things back if necessary.

Doubtless Robertson will be out to help his favourite side in their desperate hour of need, so this little side tussle between him and Walsh could turn out to be very interesting indeed.

You would, however, have to believe that if Philippe Clement is on the end of another Celtic reversal, his time at Ibrox must surely be up?

Clement is hanging by a thread at this stage.

When Motherwell’s Tawanda Maswanhise scored the Steelmen’s sublime second goal, he looked utterly clueless on the sideline.

Shellshocked even.

Like a rabbit staring into the headlights.

As has been the case more often than not lately, Hamza Igamane spared his blushes somewhat.

From my perspective, he’s the one to watch on Thursday.

He could cause us trouble.

Testament to Clement’s cluelessness, is the fact that selected Cyriel Dessers ahead of Igamane.

This was a must win game.

Any manager worth his salt is starting his most in form striker in a game like that.

And Dessers certainly wasn’t that man.

Maybe he was saving Igamane’s legs to start him against us?

But sometimes that kind of pragmatism is misplaced, especially when you already find yourself 12 points adrift of your fiercest rvials.

It should have been their strongest starting eleven yesterday.

Because it wasn’t, Clement paid the price and dropped another 2 points.

Igamane proved unequivocally why he should have started after he came on.

It proved to be too little too late, and now the Ibrox side find themselves 14 points adrift of us.

I’d be shocked if Clement didn’t start him against us on Thursday.

He has no choice but to go with his strongest starting eleven.

Simply because we are almost at full strength heading to Ibrox, with James Forrest the only current major casualty.

But judging by Yang’s performance yesterday against St. Johnstone, who despite not scoring a goal himself, put in a very decent shift, the South Korean could make an impact were he to come on late in the game.

As for Clement, it looks like the end is near.

It would be shocking if he survived a defeat to us in this fixture.

Even a draw, and another moral victory might not prove to be enough.

I guess it’s down to whether or not they’re willing to fork out what it costs to buy him out of his contract?

That’s the million pound question.

Well, the several million pounds question.

The Ibrox hierarchy are caught between a rock and a hard place.

Appease the Ibrox fans and ditch Clement at a cost of millions, which they clearly don’t have.

Or forge ahead, and stick with their man, who is apparently building something at Ibrox.

Something a bit like O’Reilly’s wall in Fawlty Towers, for those of you of an older genre.

But you catch my drift?

As for us?

We head to Ibrox under very little pressure at all.

Which should actually make this one quite easy.

A win would be lovely.

But a draw will do just fine.

What a lovely position to be in…

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