Why Clement REALLY signed his Rangers extension | OneFootball

When Rangers announced a new contract for Philippe Clement on the 2nd of August to take him to 2028, it blindsided the fans as much as James Bisgrove’s exit had.

The manager, contracted at that point to 2027, was clearly already on a pretty long-term deal.

This announcement had also come only a few weeks after the Belgian had seemingly criticised the board/club:

The damning statement there of course is regarding ‘other expectations’ which following what he said about selling before buying suggests he was told there would be money available for him, period.

And of course that’s the information Ibrox Noise had too, that Clement had a £25M budget this summer.

But then he’s clearly stated that around April or so the board told him that wasn’t the case. Meaning either he’d been lied to in the first place or that things changed. Maybe both?

And then on the 2nd of August he’s signing a year extension completely out of the blue and frankly totally unnecessarily?

Without a CEO in place, this was clearly a John Bennett call, and a naïve one potentially based on trying to keep Clement sweet.

Had the manager threatened to leave? It’s possible, yes, and Bennett rebutted by offering another year on his deal, possibly a bigger wage, and safety that if he was to be sacked, he’d get an even bigger pay off.

There was no reason for Clement to extend, just like with Ianis Hagi’s farcical extension in 2022, it’s poor management at board level, albeit by different people in different suits.

This article isn’t a critique of Clement, it’s observing how needless that extension was, and how its only motivation could only have been to stop PC walking away, resigning.

On top of everything that went on in the summer, the last thing Bennett wanted was to search for yet another new manager.

We do get that, he’s already drowning as an acting CEO, and adding a brand new manager search onto his to-do list would have been just a bit too much.

Rangers and Clement may well part company in due course, no idea, but Bennett would much rather have a CEO in place and a boardroom structure which can actually help him (and the manager) going forwards.

Rangers have no Sporting Director and no CEO – from Bennett’s point of view that’s really lacking to say the least.

Until a structure is installed, Rangers remain rudderless, and bad decisions will continue.