EVERY Rangers fan should be acutely aware of the need for a team to have a Plan B to revert to if the instructions the players have been ordered to carry out by their manager before they take to the field fail to have the desired impact.
Mark Warburton’s stubborn refusal to tweak his tactics when the Ibrox club returned to the top flight of Scottish football back in 2016 proved calamitous both for him personally and them as a whole.
The Englishman departed Govan seven months into the season in a bizarre episode which has still, nearly seven years on, not been properly explained with his side sitting in third place in the Premiership and trailing Celtic by no fewer than 27 points.
Having a contingency plan in place for when things go awry is equally important when it comes to replacing a manager.
The calls from supporters for Philippe Clement to be sacked have become deafening in the wake of the lamentable 1-1 draw that Rangers were held to by Dundee at Dens Park on Thursday night.
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It was fourth time in as many matches that the Glasgow club had failed to win away from home in the league and the result left them 15 points adrift of top spot in the table.
It was a failure too far for the fans who had cheered and applauded as Brendan Rodgers’ previously undefeated team were thrashed 3-0 at Ibrox at the start of the month. Enough is enough. Time for change. Clement out.
It has been harsh on the Belgian, who revealed in the summer that he would not be receiving the funds he had been promised to strengthen his squad, as he was missing Jack Butland, James Tavernier, John Souttar, Leon Balogun, Neraysho Kasanwirjo, Nicolas Raskin, Dujon Sterling and Tom Lawrence.
He had to hand Clinton Nsiala, the 20-year-old French defender, his debut alongside Robin Propper at centre-half.
Still, such extreme reactions are the reality of professional football at the highest level in the modern era. Nobody cares about excuses. Ultimately, it is the fans, the paying customers who buy season tickets, merchandise and subscriptions to official television channels, who decide who occupies the dugout at their club. They are not, with the Scottish title now out of reach, about to be placated by an upturn in form either.
Yet, few if any of those who have demanded that Clement be shown the exit have offered a sensible or realistic suggestion about who should replace the current incumbent of the Ibrox hotseat in recent days. That is kind of key.
He will not be able to embark on a mass rebuild and bring in new signings. And he will be expected to compete with Celtic, who spent roughly the same amount on one new player during the last transfer window as they did on 11, for major honours. No pressure then.
There are always a raft of names bandied about in these sort of circumstances and Sean Dyche, the former Burnley manager who was sacked by Everton earlier this week, is the latest. He has already been installed by some bookmakers as the favourite to take over.
Dyche is a larger-than-life personality who would not, having worked extensively in the Premier League down south, be fazed by the scrutiny he would be under. He would be a box office appointment who would, just as Steve Gerrard did when he took over, excite and energise the fanbase.
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But would he consider moving north of the border for a lesser wage than he has grown accustomed to? How would he fare at a club which is expected to dominate against opponents who sit back and defend in numbers? Nothing should be ruled out. But it appears improbable.
The other prospective candidates who have been mentioned in dispatches, Rafael Benitez, Rob Edwards, Gerrard, Julen Lopetegui, Derek McInnes, Russell Martin, Kevin Muscat, Gary O’Neil, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Gareth Southgate, seem unlikely too.
Fletcher is a boyhood Celtic fan. But he played for Rangers as a youth and has spoken in the past about how he enjoys seeing the Ibrox club succeed in Europe. He has worked as a coach, including for a spell under Erik ten Hag, and a technical director at Old Trafford since retiring from playing and has expressed an interest in becoming a manager.
With an experienced backroom team around him, drafting in a household name who is ambitious to succeed could be, just as it was when Gerrard was brought in, a leftfield solution to Rangers’ woes.
