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Clement crisis deepens as player’s agent tries to spark fan revolt against the manager.

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Image for Clement crisis deepens as player’s agent tries to spark fan revolt against the manager.

The Chinese curse says, “May you live in interesting times.”

It could almost have been coined for the club across the city right now, couldn’t it? Later on, I’m going to post a piece about the last seven days and how incredible they have been. The situation I’m about to discuss didn’t even make it into that article, because there was just so much to fit into a piece about the last seven days over there and how chaotic it’s been.

We know the manager is under pressure over there. We know because of comments from at least two of his players in the media in the last few days that there are serious problems with his management style—not just on the pitch, but off it as well, particularly in how he handles man management and interpersonal relationships.

Now, we’ve suspected this about Clement for a while because he comes across as a guy who doesn’t have much warmth. It’s reflected in some of his public statements, like the infamous interview he gave to The Sun. In it, he talked about his family situation—his relationship with his ex-wife and kids—in a way that made him sound less like a guy obsessed with winning and more like a selfish, tyrannical monster.

Every day he starts to come across more like JD Vance to me—a genuinely odd guy with some irrational ideas and a warped way of looking at the world.

I’m sure this doesn’t give a complete picture, but you don’t get the impression he’s the sort of guy you’d enjoy having a beer with. Unlike Rodgers, who at least has a personality and a sense of humour, Clement just seems… strange.

He hasn’t had a good week. As I said, I’ll explore that in more detail later. But the last thing he needed, after everything else that’s unfolded, was an agent trying to turn the fans against him on behalf of his player. I cannot even imagine a situation like that unfolding at another club anywhere right now. If the agent thinks he can get away with that, it’s because everyone smells weakness in this guy and thinks he can be pushed around.

I know Ianis Hagi isn’t having the best time of his life at the moment, rotting in the Ibrox club’s reserve team. I can’t say I have one iota of sympathy for him, though. He was offered a chance to move to Romania but turned it down on the grounds that he’s “too good” for that league, and there’s talk that the club can’t move him elsewhere because of the huge salary he’s on.

I always find it hard to feel sorry for any player complaining about how much money they’re earning when they refuse to take a pay cut to go play somewhere else. Ibrox has already made Hagi that offer—if we can call it that—and he’s flatly turned it down. I don’t blame him, but you can’t complain about being trapped when you’ve willingly slapped on the golden handcuffs yourself.

I also find it hard to sympathise with a guy who isn’t even half as good as he thinks he is, who turns his nose up at leagues like the Romanian one when he hasn’t done anything of note in his career to justify such contempt for his homeland. It’s astonishing.

He is most certainly his own worst enemy in many ways. His dad doesn’t help matters either, constantly pushing agendas on his behalf that then blow up in his face.

I don’t know what Hagi’s agent thinks will happen here as he bangs the drum on his client’s behalf, suggesting the fans should start needling the manager to let him back in the squad.

It won’t go the way he expects. He seems to think the fans are clamouring for the player, but very few of them actually are. But if there suddenly were a clamour in the stands to bring back a guy the manager has frozen out and publicly stated doesn’t have a future at the club, that can only end badly for everyone. And a row like that is the last thing Clement needs at the end of a week that must already feel like it’s lasted a decade.

If the manager can be turned completely on a decision he’s already made and spoken about in public, just because of some noise from an agent or a group of fans, he’s finished. Hagi’s agent is effectively suggesting that the supporters bring about a crisis that would destroy his relationship with the dressing room faster than any other.

That would bring his time at Ibrox to a swift end.

This level of undermining by an agent towards the manager of one of his players is something I’ve never seen before. It’s no exaggeration to say he’s trying to get Clement sacked. Because if he caves to this kind of pressure, he may as well walk into the boardroom and hand in his notice. No one in the dressing room will listen to a word he says again.

How is anybody at the club ever supposed to take him seriously when he tries to impose his will or discipline if he backs down on this?

No, Hagi’s agent either doesn’t know that or doesn’t care.

I presume he does know it, because if he’s been in the business for a while, he understands how a dressing room works and knows that a manager cannot have his authority bent like that and survive. The fact he’s made such a public demand is remarkable and adds to the pressure on Clement—a tonne of pressure he didn’t need as he fights for his job.

It brings to an end an incredible seven days where the sense of crisis across the city has just grown and grown and now threatens to crush him beneath it.

He certainly does live in interesting times. But then, the way things are right now, anybody who sits in the managerial chair over there quickly finds themselves in exactly the same position.

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13 comments

  • Charlie Green says:

    Not sure I am allowed to say this but I think his father and him are working a sort of scam, based on the famous name. The father, world famous as well as his agent, touts him round the clubs and waits for some struggling club to fall for it to give them some positive publicity. He signs then goes off injured for months.

    Remember Dalgleish signed Rafael Scheidt for 5 Million and then learned the 3 Brazil caps were for bounce games prior to the signing. It happens.

    I think Clement just demands his players put in a shift and can’t abide the chancers like TIkTok and Hagi who would rather talk a good game.

    • Clachnacuddin and the Hoops says:

      Rafael Phillipe Shite ! – Bloody Hell Charlie, That’s a blast from the past and not a very good one either…

      Barnes and Dalglish – The Gruesome Twosome (at management anyway)…

      Interesting the last two names of his Rafaels name – Phillipe Shite –

      Does it remind anyone of a certain football manager in the south west of Glasgow at the minute !

  • Bob (original) says:

    Maybe the only rational reason for Bennett giving Clement

    a new contract was that the manager accepted he wouldn’t get

    any more transfer funds – this season?

    Maybe Bennett anticipated that this season is indeed a write off

    for sevco – but he could try and ‘lock in’ the manager for the full season

    at least?

    Clement might never choose to resign, sevco can’t afford to sack him,

    and would struggle to get a half decent manager without a transfer budget anyway?

    Or, they could give Rae the job?! 🙂

  • Charlie Green says:

    Erratum: Hagi’s dad isn’t his agent. Might as well be.

  • leo mcphillips says:

    Great article may I add if you sit by the river long enough the dead bodies of your enemies will float past

  • Jimmy R says:

    The Maneken Pis has all the warmth and charm of Doc Martin. I am getting less and less sure that he can rival the Doc’s football brain.

  • Scud Missile says:

    Lol most of the klan probably think that geeze a wee Hudgie is away playing his football elsewhere anyway since nobody has seen him.

    The only reason geeze a wee Hudgie is rocking the boat with his agent is to get that extra £6,000 a week on top of his pay.

  • Steviebhoy says:

    I can only imagine the headlines if a celtic manger spoke like clemmont. A good friend of mine who supports sevco keeps saying we have to much money and its unfair. He doesn’t see the irony in that statement. Its time the celtic board took the brakes off and let’s us become a decent force in europe because keeping rangers relevant is bring celtic down in europe in my eyes.

  • bertie basset says:

    James , when two dogs get in a fight and others arrive , they all attack the weakest one on the ground ,
    they want blood , but not their own , soon the word will go out from skinto fc to the jackle’s in the press , release the hounds !!! yowllllll arf arf !!! chortle !!!

  • Valentine's day massacre says:

    Clem-on does not have to worry with nodding dog scoops like Newport of the rag Record having his back in these trying times . The Rangers scoop was at his shoring up best today , telling everyone that the no 2 at Ibroxland has every faith in his gaffer . The reason being that last week’s confrontation between big Pip and irate bears in the street has happened before – many times – and the big boss can cope with such treachery by those uppity fans . This is nowhere near the first time a team under Clem-on’s tenure as coach has collapsed when the going got tough like theRangers did towards last season’s ending . The best piece of good luck for theRangers would be for Scotland to get hammered by Portugal to take the spotlight off the Govanlandia tribute act …Newport is at the forefront for that story .

  • Yorkshire Bhoy says:

    The only downside of the shennannigans over the way is… it’s costing me a fortune in popcorn!

  • Tom says:

    James is there any confirmation yet that Hagi playing one more game would trigger a clause that would see his salary increase by £6kpw and that this is the only reason that Rangers will not allow this to happen, even though he is probably better than a lot of their players?

    • Clachnacuddin and the Hoops says:

      Sevco might not allow it Tom…

      But certainly not ‘Rangers’ – As they’re as dead as dead can be (To quote some lyrics from Danny Bhoy) !

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