Endless Rangers 'excuses' leaves Clement under 'serious threat' as squad mentality called into question

Derek Ferguson admits he is sick and tired of Philippe Clement’s excuses after the Rangers manager stated he won’t walk away from the club as he called for consistency to turn their fortunes around.

The Ibrox side suffered one of their biggest ever Scottish Cup upsets on Sunday as they were knocked out at the fifth round stage by Championship outfit Queen’s Park on their home patch - the Spiders first win over the Light Blues in 77 years.

That result has pushed beleaguered Belgian Clement to the brink of being sacked and former Gers ace Ferguson has been left questioning the motivation and mentality of the players. He reckons the board must act now on Clement’s future as pressure mounts to unbearable levels once again.

“I’ve heard too many excuses over the last period of time,” Ferguson told BBC Sportsound. “He had a group of players there with better quality than Queen’s Park, so it’s up to the manager to motivate them to go out there and win that game, and win it convincingly, for the supporters that turned up in their vast numbers yet again.

“They are deeply disappointed. So if the manager is angry you can imagine what the fans are feeling like, they’ll be devastated. I want to hear players devastated but I didn’t see that. It’s as if it didn’t mean enough to them. Maybe because they get to the last 16 in Europe they think that’s jobe done, we can slacken off a little bit.

“I think that’s the job of a manager to keep them motivated. You’ve got to threaten them at times if they’re not doing it, you hook them, you get them off of the park and you get someone else that’s going to do the job. Clearly it wasn’t good enough and sometimes that’s angered the supporters as they’ve heard too many excuses at times.

Ferguson continued: “Out of the title race, the title’s gone, that had gone before Christmas. So you are left with the cup and i think that’s why he started out with a strong team to get the job done and they haven’t managed that. He’s under real pressure now. That is why the manager comes under serious threat of losing his job because he’s got to win games like this at home to Queen’s Park.

“The quality the manager has got at his disposal, in a home game, in front of a big crowd, they should be doing the business and winning that. i thought he’d maybe turned the corner a little bit but the pressure is certainly back on. It’ll be interesting to see what decision the board make.”

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