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Faced With Even A Weaker Celtic, The Village Idiot Knows What Clement’s Best Option Is.

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The most amusing story in the media today also comes from an unlikely source. It’s not often that the Village Idiot talks sense, but he’s got it close to the bullseye for once. He says that Phillipe Clement will already be considering his future at Ibrox.

My take on this differs from that in only one specific. Clement might not be, not yet. He might be arrogant enough to think he can swing it.

But he should be concerned. If he’s not already doing it then I don’t think it will be long until he does consider things. If Celtic was doing better, he’d be deep in thought about his prospects, and he’d have one eye on the exit, already.

The Village Idiot has widened his nostrils and sniffed the air and he can smell what is wafting in it. The scent of panic at Ibrox, and the heady, sweaty smell of someone who has realised the deep hole he is in and who is now frantically looking around.

Our job is to start filling the hole with water. We are deficit in that at the moment, but there’s a truth here that dare not speak its name. Or it hasn’t until now. So, let’s talk it. Let’s say the words. Even if we only restore our strength to what it was at the end of the last campaign, we might well have enough if the crisis over there is as deep as it seems.

And you know, if this board of ours has any sense of self preservation at all, not to mention an ounce of respect for the manager, they will back him as he deserves … and if they do that then Clement is basically slugging it out in a fight he can’t win.

Let’s be honest; only a fool would hang around for that.

The fact of it is that he is already under severe pressure after Rodgers swatted him all over the map at the end of the last campaign. He needs a perfect start next season and the odds are stacked heavily against that. He knows it already. It’s why he’s talking about his team being nowhere near ready for Europe. He’s teeing up the excuses.

He’ll need them too; he’ll need them before he knows it because the European qualifiers are hurtling towards him at high speed and his squad is not remotely ready for those and their greatest advantage – the home crowd at Ibrox – has been snatched away from them and perhaps in a worse way than they know right now.

Because if the club gets the transition plan wrong, they might well struggle even to fill the National Stadium for the first European fixtures … and that would add to the growing sense of disaster that some of them feel over there. At that point he would do well to start eyeing the exit before others are contemplating how to shove him out of it.

When you listen to him, he does sound a lot like a man who is regretting some of his life choices, and I don’t even mean the ones where he kicked his missus out because she didn’t share his “winning mentality”. I laughed loudly when I read that he had said of Sima that “he’s like a son to me”; Sima should talk to Clement’s kids, who he famously would never let win at Snap growing up, to find out if that’s a compliment or not.

No, I mean the career choice to come to the killing ground of Ibrox in the first place, and especially opposite Brendan Rodgers who has a happy habit of dispatching their managers in a shorter time than the average mobile phone contract.

So this time, I understand exactly what the Village Idiot is talking about. Clement strikes me as a particularly arrogant man and if he believes that only humiliation awaits him – as well as the inevitable sacking – then yeah, I think he might well start thinking about walking.

Let me put it this way; having heard his comments recently, if you were a member of the Ibrox board how much faith would you have in him sticking around? And thus, how much would you want to fund his ambitions even if the money was there?

This has all the ingredients of a perfect storm. Now we just need Celtic to do its bit.

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16 comments

  • Robert Jenkins says:

    Celtic’s board will do all they can to keep him in a job.

  • Pedro says:

    A weak Celtic side? Not a hope in hell, if anyone who’s weaker it’s the Huns, we have just bought who was here last year which won a double- AND increased the quality and future quality by the 2 goalkeeper situation (master and apprentice)- AND speaking to the Royal Antwerp player personally shows BR is in charge, not that nepotistic Lawell family, behave yourself…

    • Jamie says:

      No we haven’t? Idah and Bernardo haven’t signed? We have lost Hart, Oh, Idah, Bernardo and Haksabanovic and brought in 2 keepers. How are we not weaker?

  • Tony B says:

    Trooble at t’shithole.

  • JimBhoy says:

    I chuckled at the story earlier. Let’s see if other in the media cast the same speculation. Mcinnes may be in place January.

  • harold shand says:

    Their vice like grip on the pre season cup has loosened

  • SFATHENADIROFCHIFTINESS says:

    All very well saying that he could or would be considering to walk. However his arrogance and inflated sense of self-worth might possibly be tempered by the presence, or absence, of an escape clause in his contract.
    I would hazard a guess that he will hang on to either he is ‘cancelled’ mutually or by reading of it on Sky Sports News.
    Worst case scenario he will hold out till he has collected enough evidence, or ‘dirt’, to resign stating that his terms of conditions of employment had been changed, to the extent that he had no alternative but to resign, thereby leaving it to the Courts to decide.
    Yet another over case for Ibrox to defend.

  • KP says:

    James have you heard any rumours about the sevco professional office bearers charging the season book holders extra money (per game) to use the season book (they have already paid for) at hamdump.

  • bertie basset says:

    I firmly believe the new club is on it’s last legs and a tsunami is soon to break upon sevco’s shores , the loss of european monies , the stadium in ruin’s , the team is in decline and a manager who is preparing he way off the skint stinking sinking ship sevco with damage limitation in mind , for any sevco knuckle draggers watching , those at celtic who managed the decline in the ten in a row and deliberately lost it all for the ” 0ld firm ” to survive won’t be able to help ye out this time , Oi peter !!! chortle chortle !!

  • brian cavanagh says:

    Great turn of phrase ‘in shorter time than an average mobile phone contract’ though Clement will probably get his cards via a whats app message

  • Cheezydee says:

    He’ll take the sack and a pay off long before he does walking away.

  • Bob (original) says:

    Perhaps the most likely reaction to the sh!t show that is sevco,

    is their delightful supporters turning up en masse outside ibrox,

    and demanding that Bennett must go!?

    Sounds like Clement has much more support

    than the Executive Chairman / Acting Project Manager… :).

  • Clachnacuddin and the Hoops says:

    Without being too cocky I’m looking forward to this season as it stands and overtaking The Survival LIES trophy count even though Celtic supporters and supporters of every other club know it’s 118-3 to Celtic over Sevco…

    Having said that there are the cheats with whistles, flags and monitors to overcome…

    And we all know how that turned out v Kilmarnock in The League Cup last August so as always we will need to be on the ball of course !

  • Matt says:

    What if we don’t do our bit? What if this window ends like the last two? I’m really worried now about our transfers now, or lack of.

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