The looming Ibrox AGM seems more dangerous to their board than any before it.

Scottish football always has a lot going on, and this week is no exception.

There’s still plenty of chatter about Philippe Clement, and I find it interesting in light of reports that some media outlets were supposedly asked to tone down the talk of him being sacked. You can see it reflected in the coverage.

Hugh Keevins’ recent pivot is particularly funny and fascinating to me because it’s so obvious he’s following someone else’s script—thinking isn’t exactly his strong suit.

Meanwhile, others are carrying on as usual, and some seem outright offended by the suggestion they’ve been told what to write or think. One of them, of course, is Keith Jackson, who posed an interesting question after Nils Koppen’s promotion the other day. Jackson wonders if the move was made because the club might need someone to swing the axe. To me, that’s adding two and two and getting five, but one thing is clear: December will make or break Clement.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the fall of France in World War II. It’s astonishing how quickly the country and its military collapsed, consumed by infighting and mistrust. They stumbled, fumbled, and tripped over themselves, more focused on finding enemies within than fighting the greater foe.

At the start of the German campaign, the French military was led by an 80-year-old holed up in a castle with no phones or radio communication, relying on motorbikes to deliver messages. When the army fell into retreat and humiliation, he spent the rest of his life blamed communists for the disaster instead of his own failures. The dysfunction was staggering.

The situation at Ibrox feels similarly chaotic. Their AGM is set for the first week of December, and it could be a bloodbath.

Rarely have I seen a club so relentlessly bombarded from all angles. Even with some journalists pulling back on Clement, the club itself has found no respite. Each day brings another story about him being on the brink, most of them from Ibrox-supporting members of the press or ex-players.

The Village Idiot himself reacted furiously to Koppen’s appointment and he wasn’t alone. It seems like everything the club does now is met with scorn. Every decision is criticised, and nothing is viewed as correct. The pile-on is relentless and unending.

How Clement feels about this is anyone’s guess, but he must be stressed. It can’t be easy waking up every day to read about your potential sacking or speculation over your successor. He can, however, take solace in one thing: the next 41 days will decide everything. If he gets through December in decent shape, he might survive. But his chances seem slim.

In that stretch, he’ll face Celtic twice, Spurs in Europe, Kilmarnock again, and other tough away fixtures. How many of those games can he afford to lose before it’s over? Not many. We’re close to the breaking point already, and it’s clear that most observers are simply waiting for the axe to fall.

So, was Jackson right about Koppen being set up to make the decision? I doubt it. What happens if a new CEO comes in after Koppen has sacked Clement and hired a replacement? That would only create more chaos, especially if the new manager isn’t fully backed.

Jackson might be connecting dots that aren’t there. Everyone is searching for patterns, but the only pattern at Ibrox is chaos.

The AGM could bring a statement of public support for Clement, but the risks are obvious. What happens if they tell fans to back him, stressing the need for stability and a long-term vision, only for December to be a disaster?

Not just a bad month, but catastrophic—two defeats to Celtic, further behind in the league, knocked out of the cup, and humiliated in Europe. In that scenario, any public support would evaporate, and the board would look even more ridiculous.

Celtic’s AGM, by contrast, will be a calm and uneventful affair. It won’t have the sound and fury that Ibrox’s will likely involve. But why does this Ibrox AGM feel different?

It’s because a major fan group is already calling for the board’s removal, and the Ibrox fan media has never been angrier or determined to destabilise their own club. It’s incredible to watch.

As I’ve said before, I’m reminded of France in the late 1930s.

Consumed by internal bickering, they failed to see the bigger picture. Instead of moving forward, they reached into the past for answers, bringing back old faces who had been prominent during World War I. It didn’t work then, and it won’t work now.

Ibrox is following the same playbook, grasping at outdated solutions to fight today’s battles. Their AGM could be a nightmare for the board and management, and this time, I think it just might be.