Patience required

151 years. 19 managers.

Among the many proud traditions and historic achievements of Rangers Football Club. It may not be as prominent as nine-in-a-row or our European Cup Winner’s Cup triumph in Barcelona, however supporters are rightly proud that so few have been fortunate enough to call themselves the manager of our great institution.

The responsibility of donning the brown brogues and representing Rangers as its manager, standing alongside legends like Struth and Smith, is an honour bestowed upon a select few over the course of the last century-and-a-half and one which has now been afforded to Philippe Clement.

But this isn’t the 1920s when Bill Struth reigned supreme. The entrance to the manager’s office in recent year has been more of a Watford-esque revolving door with Pedro Caixinha, Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Michael Beale lasting no more than twelve months at the helm.

Only Steven Gerrard has bucked the trend.

And as I look at the squad now, our financial position and the timing of the managerial change, I fear that we as supporters may have to delve deep into our reserves and display something we traditionally lack – patience.

Gerrard was given time, financial backing and was viewed as the man to return our club back to the top of Scottish football. There was an understanding, one that stemmed from the catastrophe of Caixinha, that our club perhaps was further behind than many initially cared to believe and that incremental progress would need to be made to edge our way back to a league title.

Securing that title, and in the manner in which we did, altered expectations. We saw ourselves in a position of dominance and believed that Celtic were a team at the end of their cycle.

In truth we should have retained our title however the perfect storm darkened Ibrox with an discontented manager who eventually departed and a resurgent Celtic recovering from their slow start.

And from there we have simply slipped and slid further and further back.

As I look at the position of our club now, I worry. We are not by any means in a particularly good place and it’s not likely that Philippe Clement will be waving a magic wand and transforming our fortunes enormously in the short-term.

Sure there are small wins to be had – a league cup hopefully – but there’s some way to go before we can consider ourselves genuine challengers again, never mind champions.

With that in mind I believe we simply have to recalibrate our expectations. If we don’t I fear we could be ushering another manager out of a job before he has been given a chance to fully rejuvenate this squad and shape it in his own image and style.

That is not to say we lower our ambitions – for there is a distinct difference – but we must be realistic about what can be achieved and in what timescale.

The reality is we already face rebuilding from a rebuild.

The summer, where Michael Beale had the key to every door at Ibrox, was a disaster. If his downfall was simply down to his own tactics or selection there may be some hope, however I fear that this squad is simply bereft of quality and character.

On one hand we have stalwarts who have perhaps had their day and need to be put out to pasture. On the other we have fresh blood that look absent of any measurable quality we require at Rangers.

And the injuries; so many injuries.

Phillipe Clement obviously has to make do with what he’s got for the time being. The best hope is that we get the likes of Cantwell, Lawrence and others fit and that they can bring a freshness and some much needed ability for him to work with.

But the real work for the club starts in January and beyond where we need to piece together a plan, and the funds, to recover from a rebuild that’s gone badly wrong.

This wasn’t just one summer though. It has been years in the making. There was stagnation after our title triumph which was the catalyst for what followed. Two incredibly poor summer windows placed back-to-back has seen a horrendous level of regression despite a not insignificant spend in terms of transfers and wages.

The above has probably played its part in the recent toxicity at Ibrox. There has been anger, not just at the manager or the players, but at those in the boardroom allowing our club to slide so far backwards under their watch.

The manager becomes a lightning rod for that of course and we witnessed that in recent weeks where the stands have been waiting to explode in a manner I’m not sure I’ve ever witnessed before at Rangers.

Clement therefore has to find some way to galvanise this squad. We have a league cup to win, a Europa League group to qualify from and a run of the most difficult away grounds in the country on the horizon. On the first two the expectation of success isn’t at all unrealistic. A trophy might just help lift the mood at Ibrox and give supporters some semblance of hope on which to cling.

Europe too may prove to be a welcome distraction, as it was under Gerrard. The Limassol result has set us back from what would have been a very strong position had we won but the group is still very much open and there for the taking.

But the league represents a real challenge.

We sit seven points behind Celtic having hosted them at Ibrox. In a 5-week period we have Pittodrie, Tynecastle, Easter Road and Parkhead to go to while negotiating midweek games in Europe. It’s a hellish run of fixtures and will certainly provide a baptism of fire for Clement and a stern test of his ability to get more out of these players than his predecessor.

Patience for patience’ sake isn’t what I am pointing to, for that would be naïve.

But I think we as a support do need to take a step back from things and look at the bigger picture. Our league title was two-and-a-half years ago and that brief stint at the top is not where we are now.

We are back at the early Gerrard stage of that rebuild. That’s the harsh reality.

Clement has to be viewed as someone who will be given two years to improve our fortunes and we can’t be ripping things up if we find ourselves four points behind in October next year. We need to start trusting the process again and building a squad step-by-step like we did before.

There will be setbacks, defeats and struggles.

But if we can see the general trend moving upwards then that’s a damn sight more than we’ve witnessed recently.

I don’t mean for the above to sound defeatist, but I do view it as realistic. Some will say that seven points isn’t insurmountable and, in theory, it’s not however with this squad it would require a miracle of consistency that we haven’t seen since 2020-21 or a collapse from Celtic that again isn’t characteristic. And I just don’t think we have the required quality, particularly up-front.

So here we go. Buckle up.

Another chapter in our story is about to begin and I hope it’s one that’s less of a footnote in our history than the previous entries.

Patience might well be a virtue, but here at Ibrox it may also be a necessity.