THERE have been no great surprises in Scottish football during the past seven days.
Hibernian conceding two injury-time goals to Dundee United in their William Hill Premiership game at Tannadice last Saturday and crashing to a 3-2 defeat was not entirely unexpected by seasoned observers of the calamity-prone Easter Road outfit.
If only there was a phrase to sum up Hibs making a Horlicks of things . . .
Several seasons of shameful corporate vandalism and reckless overspending finally catching up with Inverness Caledonian Thistle, who were placed into administration on Tuesday, was also widely anticipated up in the Highlands.
As was Celtic, without an away win in the Champions League since their triumph over Anderlecht in Belgium seven years ago, not being able to defeat Europa League champions Atalanta over in Italy on Wednesday evening. The gutsy 0-0 draw they ground out was significant progress for them.
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But it appears that a Rangers team which was missing six players losing 1-0 to Kilmarnock in the league on the artificial pitch at Rugby Park – a stadium they have failed to win at on eight occasions since clinching promotion to the top flight in 2016 – as they returned to action following a two week break last Sunday afternoon was a huge shock.
A sacking offence in fact. That Oscar Cortes, Danilo, Ianis Hagi, Rabbi Matondo, Dujon Sterling and Ridvan Yilmaz were all absent in Ayrshire was ignored by their seething supporters in the predictably hysterical aftermath of the narrow reverse.
So, too, was the lengthy lay-off the visitors went into the tricky away fixture on the back of. The limited funds available to the manager in the summer and their parsimonious recruitment drive? They barely merited a mention.
It was far from a surprise that a fair few followers of the Ibrox club were clamouring for a change in the dugout in October. They have shown in the last few years they have no patience for substandard displays or dips in form and don’t care about the extenuating circumstances which lead to them.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst was shown the exit door just six months after leading a side which cost less than £13m – a pittance in the European game – through to the Europa League final and less than three months after securing qualification for the Champions League group stages for the first time in 12 years.
The Dutchman was without a raft of first team regulars at the time. He was forced to play James Sands, a second choice midfielder, and Leon King, who was just 18, at centre half due to the lack of options available to him. No matter. Not good enough. Who’s next?
That turned out to be Michael Beale. The Englishman knew the demands of the role having spent three-and-a-half years working under Steven Gerrard in Govan. He had, though, been a manager in his own right for less than five months when he was appointed.
Was he given the time he needed to find his feet in the high-profile position, learn from the inevitable mistakes he made and recover from the setbacks he suffered? Nope, he was also tapped on the shoulder and handed his P45 after less than 12 months when a 3-1 defeat at home to Aberdeen left his men seven points off top spot.
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Will Clement be the third man to be jettisoned in as many years? He signed a contract extension which tied him up until 2028 back in August. He appealed for the time he needed to implement the extensive rebuild he was overseeing when he did so.
When are Rangers supporters going to realise that long-term thinking and off-field stability are needed, not a hugely costly annual change of manager and squad overhaul, if they are to progress and challenge Celtic, who lavished the same amount on a single player as their club did on their 11 new recruits during the last transfer window, for domestic honours?
The current man in charge is an experienced and accomplished coach who has enjoyed his successes at home and abroad since arriving in this country. Could somebody else really have done a better job with the limited resources the Belgian has had to work with? Could a replacement really transform his side into the dominant force in the land overnight?
The Rangers hierarchy need to stand firm, ignore any unrest that may arise in the stands, give their guy the structure, backing and players he requires to achieve his objectives and stop the hire-and-fire managerial merry-go-round they have been on since Gerrard departed. But it will be a surprise if they do.
