Clement is facing a summer of sheer torment if he loses to Celtic again
WHILE Eric Cantona ruminated over trawlers and sardines, Ryan Giggs always seemed a simpler soul. More cod and chips than cod philosophy.
In Amazon Prime’s new documentary series on Manchester United’s historic Treble-winning season of 1998/99, however, Giggsy stews over the most powerful driver known to professional sportsmen. The fear of failure.
‘Disappointment is a much stronger emotion than winning things,’ ponders the Old Trafford wing wizard. ‘It lasts longer.’
No one mentions this now. But 12 months before the Miracle of Barcelona in the Champions League final, Fergie’s United were second best. Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal had beaten their bitter rivals to a league and FA Cup Double and it drove them round the bend.
‘It lasts the whole summer,’ claims Giggs. ‘Every day you are thinking about it. Every day.’
If Celtic add the Scottish Cup to the league title at Hampden, Rangers face one of those summers. They’ll be eaten up by what might have been. Tortured by the opportunities missed.
The importance of this game to Philippe Clement can’t be overstated. Win the cup and the narrative flips in an instant.
Rangers would end a rollercoaster of a season with an acceptable haul of trophies. Given the way they started the season, two out of three ain’t bad. The Belgian would bring his threegame winless run against Celtic to an end.
The supporters starting to ask if he is really the answer would grant him a bit of breathing space to bring in some new players this summer. The mood would be buoyant, upbeat and hopeful — and the Champions League qualifiers would feel a bit more like an opportunity and a bit less like an ordeal.
Lose to Celtic again and the trust is gone. Clement would end the season with yet another defeat to the one team that he has to beat. Even Michael Beale won his fourth derby and, if this one ends the same way as the others, Clement goes to Parkhead for the opening Old Firm league game of next season under immense pressure.
One more defeat and he’d be back in the same movie as Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Beale. Fans firing SOS (Save Our Season) distress flares into the Govan air before the end of September.
When Manchester United were second best to Arsenal all those years ago, they started the next campaign with a 3-0 defeat to the Gunners in the Charity Shield. Players started fighting and bickering and doubting themselves. Alex Ferguson never did.
When Sir Furious looked around the Old Trafford dressing room he saw strong, no-nonsense, resilient characters like Peter Schmeichel, the Neville brothers, Roy Keane, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Giggs and Andy Cole.
At the Christmas party, Keane gathered a fractured squad in a drunken huddle and ordered them to stop losing games. And, when Keano spoke, they listened.
Look around the Rangers dressing room and there are no Roy Keanes. Very few players Clement can trust to give him an eight-out-of-ten in a big, mustwin game or go out with a bang.
James Tavernier and Connor Goldson are the Devon Lochs of Scottish football. The minute the finishing line looms on the horizon, their legs seem to go.
A red card at Parkhead the other week showed why John Lundstram can’t necessarily be trusted to keep the head on the big occasion. Borna Barisic throws in a lovely cross but already has one eye on the exit.
Todd ‘TikTok’ Cantwell spends his days reading social media instead of reading the room.
Cyriel Dessers has actually returned a very decent tally of 22 goals but, if he goes one-on-one with Joe Hart in the last minute at Hampden today, he’ll either stick it in the top corner for Goal of the Season or fall over his own feet. There’s no in between.
There are three or four players Clement can trust to turn up for the games that really count.
Goalkeeper Jack Butland was robbed of a place in Gareth Southgate’s squad for the Euros. Dujon Sterling plays four or five positions, and the manager must wish he could play them all at the same time. Mohamed Diomande looks like a player who’ll be worth a few quid one day. And, unless new signing Jefte is the next Roberto Carlos, Ridvan Yilmaz should be the firstchoice leftback next season. That is assuming he gets himself back fit.
By Celtic standards, this has been a challenging campaign. Yet, when the season gets to the tickly bit, Brendan Rodgers has a hardcore of players he can trust. James Forrest has 23 winners’ medals, captain Callum McGregor has 21,
Kyogo Furuhashi loves a goal in a derby and Daizen Maeda is Tavernier’s worst nightmare. Matt O’Riley and Reo Hatate will surely move to bigger leagues, while Cameron Carter-Vickers and Alistair Johnston are the proverbial Steady Eddies. One of football’s oldest cliches has it that, when the Old Firm meet, form flies out the window. In recent times, that hasn’t been the case. Rodgers has taken charge of 17 derbies and lost just one. In those 17 games Celtic have scored 39 goals against their bitter rivals and conceded 12. In 1,530 minutes they’ve been trailing for just 108. They’ve scored first in 11 of the last 12 meetings. And they’re bookmakers’ favourites to prevail once again today. To give themselves a chance, an injury-ravaged Rangers side need a fast, aggressive, controlled start. They need to confound expectation with a performance some of their own supporters doubt they have in them. For some, this will be their last appearance in a light blue jersey before their contracts run out. For others, it’s their last chance to prove they deserve a future at Ibrox. Speaking on Thursday, Clement claimed talk of a major Rangers rebuild this summer had been overblown. Lose to Celtic today and he really will have no choice. He’ll need to gut a failing squad to save his job.
Importance of this game to the Ibrox boss can’t be overstated