CLEMENT’S ONE-TRACK MIND
It ’ s not of ten you hear of a shareholder in a multi-million pound business being carted off while shouting “No surrender” at the company’s annual general meeting.
I’d have given a pound for Philippe Clement’s thoughts on that incident and the other business he watched being conducted while he was seated at the top table on Tuesday.
But I would hazard a guess the manager would have ref lected on the experience with his football head on and his mind closed to outrageous outliers.
The subject of Rangers and the quest for tangible signs of success would have been uppermost in the Belgian’s mind, I would have thought, after what he witnessed.
The fact that 700 seats proved to be insufficient for the numbers who wanted to take a temperature check on the club’s progress on and off the park would have alerted Clement to the level of pressure resting on his shoulders.
Real Betis away in a must-win European tie followed by a cup final against Aberdeen on Sunday represents a sequence of games with consequences.
Win both and you’re a hero. Lose both and you might not be an attendee at next season’s AGM.
Prioritise European achievement over domestic demands and that pecking order will be criticised.
Likewise overlook ing the importance of Europe in favour of acquiring a trophy will be similarly contentious. In other words, the man can’t win.
But he must, on both occasions.
Clement comes across as being a smart man who makes an articulate case for everything he does.
That’s why the caller to the radio, who’d been in the overspill section for late- coming shareholders, was uncharitable when he said of his abi l it y t o he a r the manager properly: “He’s Belgian. What chance have you got?”
Clement will express his beliefs and philosophy with clarity in Spain then at Hampden.
And there is nothing he has done in the job so far to be anything other than assured he won’t fail due to a lack of preparation.
It must have been galling for Brendan Rodgers to have to resort to character assassination to spark a performance out of his players in Celtic’s recent games against St Johnstone and Hibs.
What else can you call it when the manager publicly accuses his team of being soft in their mentality and weak enough to be bullied when they lost a goal in Perth last Sunday?
But Rodgers was right to do what he did.
Because the games leading up to the pivotal meeting with Rangers at Celtic Park on December 30 are all about mental strength as much as, if not more than, able bodies.
Those not mentally strong and tactically disciplined on that occasion wil l be mercilessly exposed on live TV as being inadequates.
That’s why the whole Todd Cantwell controversy over his early substitution in a Europa League tie against Aris Limassol was an overblown pile of nonsense. Philippe Clement opted for a highly public punishment exercise to remind Cantwell of the manager’s need for players to follow instructions.
Some at C el t i c a nd Rangers can give the impression of being liable to wilt under the strain of it all in Glasgow.
Celtic’s Yang Hyun-jun couldn’t concentrate well enough to keep the ball in the park or look across the line to see if he was offside at McDiarmid Park.
That’s before he was given a merci ful reprieve from