The hits just keep on coming for Clement and his crisis hit club.

Earlier today, I posted a piece about how Todd Cantwell had thrown his former manager under the bus with his recent comments to the media.

He essentially accused the manager of lying, questioned his tactics and leadership skills, and generally made his life even more uncomfortable than it already is—which is saying something, considering how uncomfortable things actually are right now.

That whole club is caught in a whirlwind of problems.

The thing is, a lot of those issues—almost all, in fact—are entirely self-inflicted, and the manager himself is significantly responsible for some of the bigger ones. As I said in the article earlier, he had another couple of pieces of bad news dropped on him yesterday, and those are what I want to talk about now. First, there’s the Europa League squad he registered, and secondly, the two players who didn’t make the squad because of ongoing injury issues.

So, what’s the problem with the Europa League squad? They were only able to name 21 out of a possible 25 players, and there are two main reasons for that—aside from the obvious fact that they are just an incredibly badly managed club.

The first problem they’ve got is somewhat similar to Celtic’s: there aren’t many good Scottish players out there at the moment, produced by other clubs, but Celtic went and signed arguably the best of the bunch. Across town, they signed Connor Barron and Liam Kelly.

Without those two, their situation would have been even worse. They might not have even been able to register as many as 20 players for that squad. And in addition to there not being enough decent Scottish talent, they are absolutely atrocious at giving their own young players time in the team. They would rather go out and sign the most awful footballer playing somewhere else than give the best of their young talent a shot.

Clement has shown no interest whatsoever in promoting youth into that team unless he’s in desperate straits and has no other choice. Besides that, I see no evidence at all that this guy knows how to develop football players. Their utter refusal to utilise whatever they have in the academy suggests either that there is nothing of value there or that Clement thinks he can solve all their problems by throwing money at them. I think that’s probably the most likely scenario.

To register only 21 out of 25 players for a European squad, especially with eight extremely difficult games ahead, speaks to a complete dysfunction at every level of that club—from the academy all the way up to the coaching staff and the manager. There is a serious problem there.

Celtic, as ever, were able to name a full complement of 25 players for our European squad. This year might have been tight so we have our own work to do in this area, and we need to start thinking about it properly. But 21 players is atrocious for a club their size.

So, aside from only being able to name 21 players for the European squad—which is a blow for any manager because you want to be able to rotate, bring on options from the bench, and rest key players—there were two notable omissions from the team, causing a lot of head-scratching over on Ibrox social media as they tried to figure out why.

The first was Danilo, the striker they signed from Feyenoord for a lot of money. He has barely kicked his own backside since signing for the Ibrox club. He has to be one of the worst wastes of cash in the history of Scottish football. We got a lot of stick for Ajeti and Barkas, but the thing about those two signings is that we are rolling in cash and could afford to make mistakes on that level, write them off, and move on. It didn’t break the bank or cause any real inconvenience.

But for a club as skint as theirs, having a major asset like him in and out of the team, injured almost all the time, and not offering much even when he is fit, is a disaster.

Because of their squad situation, Dessers, who they would dearly love to be rid of, is still playing a role in the team. That leaves them with only him and the Moroccan striker as fit centre-forwards, putting them in significant trouble right out of the gate.

They genuinely cannot afford an injury to another key player.

But of course, that wasn’t the only bad news that dropped like a laser-guided bomb on Clement yesterday. There was another omission from the European squad that raised eyebrows, though perhaps not as many, because most people had an inkling that there was news coming which the Ibrox fans were not going to like.

That player was Rabbi Matondo.

Matondo is not a guy who would ever get into a Celtic team. He is woeful. He has one key asset, which is pace. The fact that he scored that goal at Ibrox against us in the last minute to snatch a draw last season made him a hero to fans who really ought to know better.

He has been their version of Mikey Johnston since he was signed, although, as I said in a previous piece, if I were offered a choice between the two players, Mikey would be my starter 365 days a year—a footballer with far more in his locker than Matondo.

What I mean by that is that he’s a guy who continually seems to convince people he’s turned the corner. But Rabbi Matondo will never turn the corner. He is not a good footballer, which is where he and Mikey go in different directions.

I joked in a previous blog that discussing his fabled pace is like comparing him to a Glasgow city centre shoplifter. They have pace too. There is a player in the Premier League right now you can look at for comparison: Maeda. He has pace to burn, but combines it with an incredible work ethic, and he is ten times the player Matondo is.

And yet, despite all that, Matondo has been a regular starter in their team, with the manager insisting during the summer window—only after the Ross County game, it must be said—that he would not be sold even though they needed the money, because he is such a critical cog in the Ibrox machine.

You would think, if that was the case, that the player would be protected and wrapped in cotton wool before and after every game, only allowed out for training sessions and match days. You wouldn’t think the manager would treat a player he values as being so important to his first-team squad in such a cavalier and reckless fashion, as he did at Celtic Park.

Matondo went down in that game with a nasty injury issue. Everyone in the stadium who watched it knew his hamstring had gone, but they kept him on the pitch. That is stinking, reeking bad management. Even if the player wants to stay on, you overrule that if you’re a good manager. You tell him he’s an asset, to get off the pitch.

You don’t risk him getting a long-term injury. Matondo didn’t last long before having to come off anyway because you can’t just run an injury like that off and pretend it’s not happening.

Well, yesterday, that shoe dropped as well.

Aside from the news about Danilo having had another operation and being out for weeks, they found out that Rabbi Matondo has a grade three tear in his hamstring, which will put him out until the New Year. A catastrophic development, considering they turned down a transfer fee, tried to get him off the wage bill, and then changed their minds.

The manager decided that Matondo was going to be a key part of the team, so they pulled out of a last-minute deal to sign the boy from Southampton because Matondo was there. And then this happens. Any other club and any other manager, you might even feel sorry for them.

But this is down to Clement, 100 percent.

The second Matondo went down with that injury, Clement should have had him off the pitch. It was nonsense to keep him on one minute longer. And nobody in the media said at the time that it was a grossly stupid decision. I wonder if any of them will have the guts to say it now. But it’s obvious to all: you take the guy off immediately, even as a precaution, because you have to think about the games that lie ahead, and they failed to do it.

Leaving that guy on the pitch risks exactly this type of outcome, and they got what they deserved.

The saying goes that it never rains but it pours.

Well, it’s pouring over there right now—a hard rain is falling over Ibrox. And it’s both jaw-dropping and hilarious at the same time. Because over and over, I find myself asking: how can one club get itself into such a state as this? How can one club go through endless cycles of crisis and disaster, over and over again? As interesting as it would be to have that question answered, the truth is, I really don’t care. I’m just enjoying the show. Just when they thought it couldn’t get worse, there’s always some new development that does.

There is a moment in David Fincher’s excellent Fight Club adaptation where Brad Pitt’s character says to Edward Norton, “Congratulations, you’re one step closer to hitting bottom.” Someone should stick that on a greeting card and send it to Philippe Clement.