Chris Boyd has given a harsh assessment of Philip Clement's future prospects as Rangers manager, saying change is needed after the club fell further behind Celtic in the Scottish Premiership.
Rangers' miserable performance away from home continued on Thursday with a 1-1 draw against Dundee, which left them 15 points behind their rivals at the top of the table.
They started the game at Dens Park with just three wins in 10 league games away at Ibrox, unable to complete the turnaround to improve that record after a goalless second half followed by Vaclav Cerne canceling out Oluwaseun Adewumi's lead.
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Footage from the Scottish Premiership match between Dundee and Rangers.
The result provided further ammunition for those who believe Clement's time at Ibrox should come to an end, with the away club's fans showing their displeasure after the final whistle.
“It's just excuse after excuse,” former Rangers striker Boyd said. Sky Sports. “Rangers have a team that should come here and wipe the floor with Dundee but they are hanging on.
“Thirteen points out of 33 away from home is shameful. You can talk about progress but there's nothing. You're talking about players being tired and having low confidence. You absolutely destroyed Celtic a week ago or 10 days ago – you destroyed them.
“And you struggle for confidence. You lose two games and you draw and you lose a game before the Celtic game. There was no confidence struggle in the Celtic game.
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Rangers boss Philip Clement reacts to his side's 1-1 draw with Dundee amid mounting pressure from fans.
“Now then, we've drawn two games again and there's a lack of confidence in them. It doesn't make sense.
“I just look at the club now and on the pitch, it's broken. There are no patterns of play, there is nothing. You always point to the Celtic game as Rangers' best performance of the season.
He added: “But it can't just be a one-off, we know that. It's a huge shame that Rangers are in this position.”
Rangers' Hamza Igamani reacts to Dundee's opening goal
“And you can see that you haven't spent the money. The money has been spent. Yes, there has been cost cutting, but the money has been spent.”
“There is no improvement. We talked about injuries getting better as well. I mean this is actually worse.
“You can talk about moving players and having to play extra minutes. Guess what? You're a footballer. That's what you get paid for, is to play minutes.
“No progress at all. It's done.”
“It's up to Patrick Stewart (Rangers chief executive) now, because I'm telling you now, these are the last two away games.
“These fans are fed up and will get to a point where they stop coming to games, and then you will see the real problems start to arise for Rangers, because this cannot continue.”
SUTTON: Brendan pops open the champagne
Dundee player Oluwaseun Adewumi celebrates after scoring
Chris Sutton on Sky Sports:
“Philippe Clement has to take responsibility, but the players on the pitch also have the knowledge and understanding of how to win games.
“If you look at the Rangers squad and think, 'Does the shirt fit a lot of these players?' I've said before that there's a losing mentality at the club and nothing has really changed, and that's not just Philippe Clement.
“This has been happening now for years and years and years. And you watch how tacky this performance was tonight. Celtic are laughing at them.
Rangers conceded first at Dens Park
“Brendan Rodgers, he's going to open the champagne this evening, and laugh at them. It's embarrassing that we're in the first part of January and Celtic are 15 points at the top. This is shocking and astonishing.”
“We were talking before the game and Chris (Boyd) and I thought Philip Clement should have gone a long time ago. But they've reached a crossroads now because can this continue? The club is in decline.”
“So, are we going to look at that or is Patrick Stewart going to look at the bigger picture and not just one game against Celtic where they raise the level of the game or, you know, the odd game in Europe?
“Clement will come out and talk about Celtic having a bigger budget, but Rangers shouldn't lose 19 points to teams with much smaller budgets than them, and he never mentions that.
“We hear excuses week after week now. It's not good enough. It's time for him to take ownership, but he won't do it.”
“But this Belgian waffle will go on and on and on. It won't stop until a decision is made on it.”
Clement: I have 200% support from the Board of Directors
Philip Clement claimed that the Rangers board supported him 200%. Asked if he was confident that the board, which has a new CEO in Patrick Stewart, still supported him 100 percent, the Belgian president replied: “Yes, 200 percent.”
“Every day we talk about everything, about January, about next season, about everything. Yes, of course the fans are not happy.
“We are also not happy, we are all unhappy about losing these three points. The fans always support us when we are in good form, when we play good matches. So it was not a good match today.
Vaclav Cerny celebrates after scoring the 1-1 equaliser
“So I understand that they are not happy with that. I know these fans, they don't give up the minute we show quality. It's about us showing quality on the pitch and then they get right behind the team, always.”
“So our job is to do that as quickly as possible. That starts on Sunday, to show quality again and on both sides of the game. Not just offensively, but defensively as well.”
“Today, defensively, it was better compared to the last away games. In that way, it was a positive. The game Clinton Nsiala played in his first game for Rangers, it was a positive point.
“But in the end, it's about results of course. I've accumulated a lot of points over the last two or three weeks.”
