Tomorrow’s press briefing at La La Land is of interest to more than just Ibrox fans.

Earlier today, one of my good friends in Celtic cyberspace, Paddy Sinat, posted a piece on Derek Ferguson and his meltdown at the weekend after the Ibrox club were knocked out of the Scottish Cup by Queen’s Park.

Now, we’ve talked that game to death on the podcast, although I suspect it will get plenty of mentions in the years to come, and while we’ve explored, in some small way, the scale of the Ibrox crisis, I think we’re eventually going to have to do a larger piece on it.

Ferguson is just one of a large number of media personalities in this country with an Ibrox background. We lament how many of them are working in the sports media here, and we refuse point-blank to call what they do journalism because it bears no resemblance to that at all.

But there are times when it’s fun to observe them losing their minds, indulging in crazy, furious outbursts as though they were just guys in the stands.

I think almost everyone—whether in the sports media, fan media, or just fans across Scottish football—expected that Philippe Clement would be sacked in the aftermath of that result. The fact that we’re now at Thursday night after the game, and that hasn’t happened, is absolutely jaw-dropping.

I am genuinely amazed that we’re not there yet. I cannot believe there hasn’t been some kind of statement from the club or a major push from the fans to have him shown the door. As I’ve said before, I think it shows weakness across the board.

So many members of the sporting press have called for his dismissal this week that tomorrow is going to be one of the more interesting days on the sports calendar.

It’s not a match day—the games are all taking place on Saturday and Sunday, as per usual—but tomorrow is going to be a red-letter day just the same because Clement is going to have to sit in front of those people, those members of the Scottish sports media, and face the music.

As one newspaper put it today, there is no hiding from that. It will happen unless something dramatic changes between now and then, and that is not only improbable but virtually inconceivable.

So what are they going to ask him? What do you say to a guy who’s on death row but doesn’t have an execution date? What do you ask someone whose support has dwindled to a tiny number and who everyone else in the Ibrox stands wants gone? Do you pretend it’s a normal press conference?

Do you just go and ask him about the game, about his tactics, about the team he intends to field? Do you ask about the fitness status of his players? Do you try to pretend some form of normality exists? I don’t really see how they could.

A lot of media outlets today are quoting the results of the Ibrox fan forum, at which Patrick Stewart declared that keeping the manager in place is the club’s decision because, as he put it, “there is a lot more to fix.”

He’s right about that, of course—the crisis at that club hasn’t even started to gather pace yet. But not a single word uttered during those fan forums is relevant to the discussion right now because every one of those statements was made prior to the Queen’s Park game.

There was a fantastic movie called Fallen, starring Denzel Washington, about a detective investigating a series of murders that all appear bizarrely interconnected. I won’t give away too much of the plot, except to say that if you love movies, you have to see this. It’s a strange film but brilliantly realized, with a tremendous cast, script, and central concept.

Washington, who provides the film’s narration, says something at one point—that there are moments in life where something changes so profoundly that, from then on, you think of everything in two separate strands: before this and after this.

And we are very much in the after this phase of Philippe Clement’s managerial career. Nothing that happened before matters a damn at this moment in time. There was before Queen’s Park, and there is after Queen’s Park. And after Queen’s Park, none of the guarantees apply. None of the assurances are worth a pile of sand. They’re in new territory. They are in a new reality.

So for those hacks sitting in front of him tomorrow, it is pointless to pretend otherwise. It is pointless to pretend that they’re dealing with anything other than a dead man walking. There should only be one conversation on the agenda—his future.

If that press conference follows the route it should, that will be the main topic of conversation. But it’s not impossible that the club will try to impose some sort of restriction, allowing only one question about his future for those who want to get in the building. And it wouldn’t be the first time they’ve done this.

Bear in mind that at one point, many of these outlets agreed to pay to attend Ibrox press conferences. If they were willing to do that, they are certainly willing to toe an editorial line handed down by the club.

So yeah, I expect a very weird press conference.

Anyone who tries to pretend that things are normal is simply not doing their job. Anyone who puts a brave face on it and tries to find reasons for optimism is either delusional or willfully ignoring reality. And anyone who obeys an editorial line not to ask hard questions shouldn’t be in that room in the first place.

Ibrox fans will be watching every single bit of it with enormous concern. We’ll be watching it with a different kind of interest, but every bit as attentively. I want to see how the media comports itself.

I want to see how they handle talking to a guy they all know should be out of a job. And I’ll be especially interested to see if any of them ask him directly why the directors are keeping him, because he must have talked to them. He cannot have gone through this week without speaking to the people above him at the club. It is inconceivable that they haven’t had a sit-down discussion about this.

So their fans—and everyone else—should get an answer tomorrow. Why is he still here? Why are they showing faith in him?

Why is that so important? Because it’s the last thing the Ibrox fans want to hear.

Whatever the answer is, they won’t like it.

And yeah, I have a selfish interest in this—I want to see that club melt down. And tomorrow’s answers could be the trigger.

That’s why myself and many other Celtic fans will be watching.

Photo by Ross Parker/SNS Group via Getty Images

The other night we put up our latest podcast. Recorded just after the Ibrox club went crashing out of the cup, we called it They’re Simply Depressed.