football

Rangers release 51-word statement as Philippe Clement sacked with Celtic miles clear


Rangers have officially confirmed Philippe Clement has been sacked in the aftermath of their Scottish Premiership defeat to St Mirren at Ibrox.

A statement on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday evening read: “Rangers Football Club can confirm it has tonight parted company with men’s first-team manager, Philippe Clement.

“The club would like to put on record their sincere thanks to Philippe for his hard work and dedication during his spell in charge.

“A further update from the club will follow in due course.”

The Belgian coach leaves with Rangers 13 points adrift of Premiership leaders Celtic, who also beat them in the League Cup final in December.

The Hoops had lost to Hibernian earlier on Saturday but Rangers suffered a fifth league defeat of the campaign as they once again failed to bridge the gap to their Old Firm rivals.

Clement, 50, took over the Glasgow giants in October 2023 when succeeding Michael Beale. He won 55 of his 86 matches across all competitions but of his 15 defeats in charge, nine have come this season.

He only signed a new contract until 2028 before the campaign got underway but the Gers have dropped far too many points in the Premiership title race in winnable matches.

Rangers demolished Celtic 3-0 at Ibrox at the start of January but since then have drawn with Motherwell, Hibs and Dundee before losing at home to St Mirren.

They also crashed out of the Scottish Cup at home to second-tier Queen’s Park earlier this month in one of the cup competition’s biggest ever upsets.

After Saturday’s latest loss, Clement had vowed to fight on and apologised to supporters. He told BBC Sportsound: “I can say only sorry, and apologise for me and the team because this is not what Rangers teams need to show on the pitch.

“We all know this was by far below the standards that we all expect. I’m always fighting until the end. I wanted to be on the field to fight.

“I cannot do that, so my task is to do it from the sidelines, and to get the team in the right mindset. That was not the case today, so I need to find the solution for that.”

It is not yet clear who Rangers will pursue as a replacement. Steven Gerrard, their last title-winning manager in 2020-21 when the Light Blues won the league unbeaten, has been one named bandied about as a candidate.



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