Rangers fans split over walk-out protest as Philippe Clement urges unity
2025-01-13
Category: sports

A 15-point gap behind Celtic in January is simply intolerable to Rangers supporters, particularly after the false dawn of having comprehensively beaten their city - and Scottish title - rivals just over a week ago. That good work was obliterated by dropped points away to Hibernian and Dundee. In the blink of an eye, the gap is now wider and the title surely gone.This proved the tipping point for a section of Rangers fans who called for manager Philippe Clement to go and, with him, some within the boardroom.The clarity provided 24 hours before Sunday's 3-1 home win over St Johnstone from new chief executive Patrick Stewart did little to appease the most vocal critics. 
In Saturday's media briefing, Stewart clearly indicated the club remained behind Clement, so long as their wretched away form was addressed.Undeterred, fan group the Union Bears, alongside the Rangers Supporters Association, responded by urging fellow fans to leave Ibrox in the 55th minute "to send a statement to the board...that we will no longer tolerate their incompetence, excuses and disrespect".They carried out that threat, a minute or so after St Johnstone netted a second-half consolation. Others around the stadium joined them, but they were clearly in the minority.While there was a smattering of applause, which appeared to support the move, what was striking was some fierce booing of those intent on departing.Post-match, Clement called for unity in the stands. Just as he did on his arrival at the club after fans watched the dying embers of Michael Beale's reign through cracked fingers."I understand that fans are not happy with our away record," the Belgian conceded. "I'm also not, totally not."A lot of fans stick to the team and support. Some fans wanted to show their disappointment."I want everybody to be united. Simple. You can see it as a positive that still a lot of people are behind everything."Whether those berating the walk-out were behind everything is up for debate. There aren't many Rangers fans who will be happy with their lot right now, or with any realistic optimism that Rangers genuinely remain in this title race.The fan base also seems far from united. Support the team, or try to force change, seems the conundrum.What is curious about calls for change in the boardroom is that it's already happening, albeit it took some time to put in place after the departure of James Bisgrove as chief executive and John Bennett as chairman. 
That in itself may have been costly and not helped Clement's cause. It's clear, some of those who remain and have steered the club over the past few years are past their sell-by date in some fans' opinion.Alongside Stewart, Rangers have a new chairman in Fraser Thornton. Both men will have a major role in reviewing and revamping how the club operates. However, they will need time and, in Glasgow, that is a limited commodity, especially when results are so inconsistent."I've been six, seven months sometimes feeling alone in the desert and addressing things to make better in the club," Clement explained in reference to a lack of chief executive."That will help me, that will help the football department, but it will help everything inside the club. So I'm happy that we can have really open and sometimes critical discussions about it."We want consistency, I want consistency, and fans want consistency to get better results. We have the consistency in the home games, we have consistency in our European season, but we didn't have consistency away at home. So those are things to work on."There seems much to work on. Domestically, the title challenge has disintegrated. In the Europa League, Rangers are well placed, but that's not going to satisfy some. Stewart indicated Rangers will recruit just one or two in this transfer window. With limited resource, it'll be challenging to make that have significant impact. A change in fortune for Clement seems to rely on him draining every ounce from the squad he has at hand, with little margin for error.Otherwise, the vocal critics are likely to grow in calling for change - and that may lead to exactly what Clement doesn't want, an even more fractured fan base.