Why Rangers chief Patrick Stewart might be the subsequent head followers are calling for, writes GARY KEOWN

What does Patrick Stewart really expect this root-and-branch review of the football department at Rangers to throw up other than the fact you can’t possibly allow a manager to carry on when he’s 18 points behind Celtic in early January having managed to win just three away games in the league out of 11?

That the new CEO and the board he now represents seem willing to let this catastrophe of a season just play out, with consultants being brought in at extra expense, simply sums up where the Ibrox outfit are. What they are. How the standards, all that ‘best in class’ stuff they used to talk so often about, have gone completely.

It is as clear as a bell that Philippe Clement’s time as head coach is up. It’s a root-and-branch review of the years of atrocious decision-making by those in the boardroom that’s required more than anything else. Plus a solid commitment given to not allowing those responsible back near the controls of the train set no matter how much money they have put in through time.

Stewart took on a job-and-a-half when agreeing to have a go at unravelling the almighty mess that is Rangers FC, but he has done himself no favours at all by refusing to bow to the calls of supporters’ groups and ditch Clement.

He said himself that he thinks the players are good enough, so where else can the blame lie for the side being complete also-rans than at the feet of the boss? Well, the boss and those above him in the pecking order who have just made bad call after bad call all the way back to failing to strengthen after Steven Gerrard had stopped Celtic making it 10-In-A-Row against all odds back in 2021.

The fact a review into the footballing department is being conducted less than two months after Nils Koppen — whose remit Stewart does not appear terribly clear on — was promoted from head of recruitment to technical director sums it up.

If the board now feel getting folk in to lift the bonnet and diagnose what is wrong is a good idea, why did they sign off that appointment? Why, for that matter, did they give Clement a lucrative new contract on the eve of the season as a reward for blowing the title from a winning position last time out?

There’s an easy conclusion to jump to. That they don’t know what they’re doing. And have never really known what they are doing.

Hence a business delivering record turnover heading steadily towards the £100million mark is still recording a £17m-a-year loss — with no indication of the next set of annual financial results being an awful lot better.

Regular readers of this page will not require a root-and-branch review of the disasters that have unfolded under the watch of the likes of Douglas and Graeme Park and their fellow board members since Gerrard’s title win briefly offered signs of a brighter tomorrow.

The one-time Liverpool and England captain wanted the roof fixed while the sun was still shining. As it was, he was permitted to keep players who should have been sold and saw the directors fail to use ‘55’ as any kind of platform as a result.

Since then, it has just gone from bad to worse. It’s getting boring going on about it all now. Especially since the penny finally seems to have dropped with even the hardest of the hardcore.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst qualified for the Champions League and didn’t get any new players. Even worse, the Dutchman was then bulleted in favour of Gerrard’s old No2 Michael Beale, who had hung over his head like the Grim Reaper, holding meet-and-greets in Rangers pubs and even turning up in the directors’ box.

That awful appointment — not to mention that ghastly lead-up to it — reflected so badly on those within the powerbase. As did allowing Beale to squander £21m unmonitored in a summer window, following the departure of sporting director Ross Wilson, on players who weren’t up to it.

Wages were allowed to spiral out of control. Alfredo Morelos and Ryan Kent were allowed to walk out for nothing when there was once £30m on the table for both of them. Borna Barisic and John Lundstram were others who also quit on Bosmans to show nothing had been learned. 

The ‘mythical player-trading model’ — as long-departed chairman John Bennett labelled it — is still nowhere near coming to fruition. Todd Cantwell, Connor Goldson, Sam Lammers, Ross McCrorie and Scott Wright being offloaded in summer for a grand total of £810,000 offered alarming evidence of that.

Foul-ups in the footballing department, of course, are only matched by foul-ups elsewhere. Marketing man James Bisgrove proved a poor chief executive before upping sticks for Saudi. Presumably, his promotion was reward for being the bloke who defended the Sydney Super Cup and told punters he was ‘disappointed’ they weren’t getting on board with being chief support for Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou’s Big Aussie Homecoming Tour.

There’s also been an estimated £13m-plus spent on an Edmiston House venue that isn’t big enough to hold the club AGM. And, then, the absolute disaster of being unable to start the season at Ibrox because of construction work on the Copland Stand that never looked likely to be finished in time.

That fiasco was the final straw for Bennett. It was a misjudgment of gargantuan proportions. However, one small element of that horror story resonates most.

Rangers set up a Fan Advisory Board to look interested in engaging with punters after years of using them primarily as a cash cow. Three days before confirming Ibrox wouldn’t be open and the whole kit and caboodle would be decamping to Hampden, they told said fan board that everything was going to plan with the Copland rebuild.

It could have been a case of crossed wires, but felt more like a downright lie. Even now, it colours how an increasing number of supporters feel they are viewed by those at the top and their anger will surely be heard and felt during today’s visit of St Johnstone.

Season-ticket holders are putting their seats up for sale. The Rangers Supporters’ Association want Clement’s blood. The Union Bears group have gone even further, slaughtering the players and demanding fans are ‘united and demand change’ this afternoon. 

There is an initial plan to walk out in the 56th minute of this afternoon’s visit of St Johnstone and Stewart’s big review, which may take six to 12 weeks, he says, offers plenty of time to organise a sustained protest campaign.

One thing’s for sure. It’s only going to get more and more toxic at Ibrox and it is no more than the upper echelons deserve. This is the culmination of years of mismanagement. The almost inevitable end point.

No one is listening any longer to Clement’s endless excuses and occasional gibberish to explain away a run of results that is utterly unacceptable. His race has been run for a long time and the eyes are now as much on the boardroom as the dugout.

Insisting the Belgian is not being kept in position because there’s no money to pay him off, Stewart stated yesterday: ‘If we rush and react every time there’s some poor results, we’re in danger of being back in the same place in a year’s time or 18 months’ time or however long.’

Rush and react? Some poor results? This has been more than 10 months of inadequacy under Clement since a home loss to Motherwell instigated a full-on collapse. Supporters are within their rights to be demanding his removal and surely will do so again today.

Stewart had better be careful too. In the eyes of many, his State of the Nation address has only ended up making him look like a mouthpiece for the directors who have landed Rangers in this awful state.

And if that view gathers greater support, they’ll soon be chanting for his head on a stake as well.

Kyogo’s move to MLS is not just a fantasy

What a ricket the people running Major League Soccer’s social media made of it during the week when announcing that Kyogo Furuhashi had joined Atlanta United.

The Georgia-based outfit had put out a teaser video relating to a new signing that featured a representation of Mount Fuji and someone at the league, who clearly didn’t know their sushi from their shinkansen, fired up on their employers’ official X page that Furuhashi was on his way Stateside.

Turns out Atlanta had actually brought in a bloke called Cayman Togashi, a free transfer who qualifies as a national player as a result of being born in New York. Apologies were made to the ‘impacted parties’ and it was all written off as a terrible mistake, but this one is not going to go away now.

There is interest from Atlanta in Furuhashi. There has been since the summer. The Americans are still eager to sign a couple of high-profile designated players when their window opens at the end of this month.

And, let’s be honest, if they — or anyone else, for that matter — offer north of £6million for the Japanese, are Celtic in any position to turn that kind of money down?

Furuhashi turns 30 later this month. Celtic already have 23-year-old Adam Idah on the bench most weeks and a Scottish club really can’t afford to keep a guy who cost them £8.5m parked there for long.

Furuhashi has been a splendid signing for the Scottish champions. He’ll still be around for the end of the Champions League group stage, which concludes at Aston Villa on January 29, and might even be able to hang around for the play-offs in mid-February.

The MLS window will still be open then. And if Atlanta really are still sweet on doing a deal, everything suggests the time is right for Celtic to sell and move on.

Holm’s lack of humility was his downfall 

Odin Thiago Holm’s time at Celtic Park looks to be coming to an end with a loan move to MLS side Los Angeles Galaxy in the offing.

It is difficult to pick out any particular moments of note from the young Norwegian since his £2m-plus move from Valerenga 18 months ago — other than making himself look like a prize plonker on Instagram.

After just his second subby appearance at Pittodrie in August 2023, the 21-year-old posted a photo of himself leaving Aberdeen’s Slobodan Rubezic grounded in his wake with the caption ‘B****, be humble. Sit down.’

In an attack of common sense, he later deleted it, but the damage was done.

Unfortunately, poor Odin has been doing plenty of sitting down himself since — either on the substitutes’ bench or in the stand — and is now clearly seen as surplus to requirements.

When it comes to attempting to get his career back on the rails in America, being humble is the best advice he could take.