Kris Boyd has given a damning verdict on Philippe Clement’s spell at Rangers, calling for the Belgian manager to leave.
Speaking as a Sky Sports pundit during Rangers’ 2-1 defeat to Aberdeen at Pittodrie, Boyd didn’t hold back in his critique, particularly of Rangers’ recruitment strategy.
This recent loss leaves Rangers nine points behind in the Scottish Premiership and fuels Boyd’s belief that change is needed.
Reflecting on Rangers’ recruitment approach, Boyd said:
“The recruitment from the football club, for a number of years now, is absolutely miles off it. Blame the budget and cutbacks all you want, there is still money being spent.”
He continued, detailing the substantial transfer fees Rangers have paid, without seeing the corresponding results:
“Diomande cost over £4m, Jefte £1m, Cortes—who they need to buy and we’ve hardly seen, Igamane £1.7m who is a project, Propper £1.5m and Bajrami £3.4m—the list goes on. There is no way this can continue at Rangers, and somebody needs to get a grip of it.”
Boyd’s former rival, Chris Sutton, then questioned what he meant by “get a grip,” to which Boyd responded directly, asserting that Clement should depart:
“Chris, we know how football works. Well, yeah. For me, now, yes he does.”
He elaborated, stressing the lack of progress under Clement’s leadership:
“If there was progression, you could cut him some slack and say, ‘It’s okay, there are players coming in and it’s a new group.’ But eight of the 11 were already at the football club before he arrived—that’s not progression!”
Turning his focus to Aberdeen, Boyd highlighted their managerial consistency as a model Rangers could learn from:
“What have Aberdeen done? Aberdeen have kept going and going until they’ve got to the right one. They’ve got the right one now.”
Boyd warned that Aberdeen’s current success may make it challenging to retain their manager, suggesting that larger clubs may come calling:
“And by the way, they might be lucky if they can keep ahold of him for a period of time because the way Aberdeen are going right now, there’s going to be big teams looking at him.”
Discussing Rangers’ struggles further, Boyd expressed concern about declining attendance and the potential financial ramifications:
“The crowds are down at Ibrox. It’ll be interesting to see how many turn up at Hampden. Once that starts to dwindle away then all of a sudden the club is losing money as well because the fans don’t want to turn out.”
He stressed the importance of fan support and how dissatisfaction with the team’s style of play could impact the club:
“The fans are key in everything here. Once they get fed up and bored of watching this style of play—or lack of style of play—then that’s it.”
Boyd cited former managers as examples of the consequences when the supporters lose faith:
“We said it under Michael Beale and Giovanni van Bronckhorst. Once the fans turn, and believe me, having spoken to a good few of them, they have turned—even the ones with blue-tinted glasses on can see right through what is going on right now.”
In closing, Boyd criticised the recurring optimism found in post-match interviews, saying:
“It’s easy in interviews to kick the can down the street and say, ‘We’ll get better,’ there is nothing to suggest that they are going to get better.”
Summing up the state of affairs, Chris Sutton added:
“They are a rotten watch.”