Philippe Clement Has His Hands Tied at Rangers (2024)

Rangers boss Philippe Clement hasn't had the best start to the Scottish Premiership season, with his side already five points behind bitter rivals Celtic in the title race - but Simon Jordan has offered his sympathy to the Belgian, stating that he would have operated better had he been brought in ahead of Michael Beale.

The Ibrox outfit have been thwarted twice in just four games already this season, drawing 0-0 at Hearts in a drab occasion to open the Scottish Premiership season, before a 3-0 drubbing at Celtic Park on Sunday worsened the mood in the Ibrox camp. That has seen Clement come under some criticism - but Jordan has sided with the Rangers boss by claiming that if he was given the tools Beale was afforded, he'd have done a much better job than the Englishman.

Jordan: Clement Has Had 'Runt End' of Rangers Situation

The Belgian has had to deal with a bad hand at Ibrox

Speaking on the White and Jordan podcast, the former Crystal Palace chairman gave his sympathy to Clement for having to put up with a poor situation at Rangers - stating that if he had come in when Beale did, he'd have done a much better job with a bigger budget to spend. He said:

Michael Beale Signings Are Part of Rangers Problem

The club still have some of his poor additions in the club's squad

Beale's winter signings of Todd Cantwell and Nicolas Raskin in his first few months at Ibrox weren't the worst signings in the world - though Cantwell has since moved on to Blackburn Rovers amid wanting to leave Scotland, and Raskin remains a first-team player under his compatriot boss.

Beale's summer window, however, was a disaster. Of his nine summer signings, only Jack Butland and perhaps Cyriel Dessers could be called successes, though Dessers cost a lot of money at £4.5million. Abdallah Sima had a strong loan spell at Ibrox, but the club couldn't afford his transfer fee from Brighton, and Leon Balogun was a backup signing who has fared okay.

Meanwhile, the additions of Kieran Dowell, Danilo and Dujon Sterling have all been somewhat underwhelming thanks to a lack of game time and injuries.

However, the signings of Jose Cifuentes and Sam Lammers could go down as some of the worst Rangers have ever seen, with Lammers being sold after just six months - despite costing £2.5million - and Cifuentes played in just nine league games before embarking on two loan spells.

If Clement had been able to spend the money that Beale spent on a season which began with three losses in just seven league games, he would have been able to mitigate the disaster left in his wake by the former Queens Park Rangers boss to a better standard, which could have led Rangers to the title to end Celtic's two-year dominance of the top-flight trophy.

Statistics courtesy of WhoScored. Correct as of 06-09-24.