Shortly after Rabbi Matondo had thrown the ball into the upper corner of Joe Hart in Ibrox last April, he talked about how Kevin de Bruyne had been the inspiration behind his equalizer of the detention time.
A fairly striking line, for all accounts. On any other day, one end of the work rangers that talks about one of the best world football players could have easily dominated the headline headlines the next morning.
But he was immediately degraded due to what his manager had just said at the same media conference after the party.
After a dramatic draw of 3-3 with Celtic, a game that had seen the rangers snatch a point thanks to the late leveling of Matondo, Philippe Clement declared that his team was the “moral winners.”
It was one of those moments that made journalists look at, surround their eyes and swell their cheeks.
The Rangers entered that game knowing that the fate of the League title was in their own hands. The Celts were vulnerable and there for the shot.
Clement celebrates the tie of Rabbi Matondo in the last 3-3 draw with Celtic in Ibrox
Clemente was in the shadow of chief Celta Brendan Rodgers during his time in Glasgow
Clement and coach Stephan Van Der Heyden leave the Rangers Training Center after their dismissal
The rangers were at home and they were expected to win. For Clement to leave later and begin to say nonsense about 'Morales winners', that was the day the alarms really began to sound.
From that moment, it always looked like a misfit and a guy in the wrong movie. The Rangers exploded a great opportunity that day. In their next game, they lost 3-2 in Ross County and then 0-0 moved away in Dundee.
All the positivity that had been built during the first months of Clement in the club, a race that had seen the Rangers withdraw from 24 wins and three draws from their first 28 games in all competitions, had gone.
It was a collapse of the title that Clement never recovered. The bad form of the Rangers continued until the beginning of the new season and, given the stadium fiasco during the summer, it soon became an omnishmbles inside and outside the field.
Another decent career in the Europa League, as well as a 3-0 victory over Celtic at the beginning of the year, seemed to be enough to buy Clement some time and retain some credit at the bank.
But an exit from the Scottish Cup at the hands of Queen's Park was probably a crime of dismissal in itself, although the new executive president Patrick Stewart publicly supported the manager after that humiliation.
St Mirren chief Stephen Robinson celebrates with his players after his 2-0 success in Ibrox
However, a 2-0 house defeat against St Mirren last weekend turned out to be the point of rupture. It was too much calamity for a manager who should really have put his misery a long time ago.
Stewart and the Rangers hierarchy were willing to give Clement the opportunity to see the rest of the European campaign, with a clash of the last 16 of the Europa League with the Fenerbahce of José Mourinho.
There was hope that I could still save something from a disastrous campaign. But the defeat against St Mirren was effectively the straw that broke his back his back.
Beyond the result of the field, it had been clear that Clement was fundamentally inappropriate to be the Rangers manager. His comments were increasingly judged, to the point that he became a public ridiculous figure.
After the defeat against Queen's Park he finishes a fortnight, he started hitting how the Rangers had more shots to the goal than in any other game this season.
After a 2-1 defeat in Aberdeen in October, he said that the Rangers had produced one of their best performances of the season.
Queen's Park produced one of the biggest whims of the Scottish Cup of all time earlier this month
Again, total nonsense. They were the words of a manager who often lost contact with reality in moments of problems.
Perhaps the biggest mistake that the Rangers committed with Clement was to grant a new contract at the beginning of the season, one that linked it to the club until 2028.
He had done nothing to guarantee that extension. After the initial rebound and winning the League Cup when it arrived, the end of last season was a disaster.
But, what cooked his goose more than anything was the fact that the Rangers did not have a discernible style of play despite the fact that he had been at work for 16 months.
Europe was a different story. With respect to better teams, the Rangers often had more space to counteract and play at rest.
But, at the national level, they were horrible. The football style has been tortuous this season under Clemente and now he has paid that to his work.
Rodgers holds high the league cup trophy after Celtic's penalty victory over the Rangers
The style of play is the key area where managers are judged above all in the modern game. You can't fool fans. They know what they are seeing weekly.
If the followers can see a style of play to put on board, * they will give time to a manager. The most obvious reference point for this in recent years in Scottish football is Ange Posttecoglou.
When Postecoglou took care of Celtic in the summer of 2021, success was not an immediate partner. There were bumps along the way. Big.
Celtic was eliminated from the qualifiers of the Champions League against FC Midtjylland. In the first postecoglou league game, they lost 2-1 against Hearts in Tynecastle.
In their first game of old and firm against the Rangers, they lost 1-0 in Ibrox. But, at that time, Celtic had already developed a very clear style of play.
They had already assaulted two 6-0 victories over Dundee and St Mirren when they faced the Rangers. They were mistreating the teams and showed the fast and free flow style that would be known as 'Angoball'.
Clement spoke for the high achievement of his team in Europe, but did not hide from domestic disappointment
Postecoglou had taken care of a club in crisis after the disastrous season of ten in line. Working within a budget, changed Celtic in the double double time thanks to smart coaching, smart firms and good management.
That is what the Rangers need at this time. They need a manager who can implement a clear game style, with cunning recruitment, and can take the club forward. They need their own destecoglou.
Someone like Kjetil Knutsen, an operator tested in Europe with Bodo/Glimt who plays attacking football, at first glance, would be a good option.
Knutsen speaks well English and has a proven history of hitting over his weight with the Norwegians while playing an attractive football brand.
What the Rangers have, at least in the short term, is Barry Ferguson. It was announced yesterday that Ferguson will direct an interim management team, assisted by Neil McCann, Billy Dodds, Allan McGregor and Issame Charai.
Bodo/Glimt Boss Kjetil Knutsen could consider Ibrox vacancy
A club legend as a player, Ferguson will certainly have respect for the wardrobe. But his capabilities as coach and manager are less clear.
After having been in charge of Clyde, Kelty Hearts and Alloa Athletic, there is nothing in the Ferguson CV as manager who suggests that he really should be anywhere near the Rangers.
But if the club purely seeks to enter, establish the ship and lift the morals, then Ferguson could do the job as a short -term stop appointment until summer.
However, given the cast of thousands who work with him, he looks like a committee management. McCann, Dodds and McGregor played for the club for many years and presumably can dust off the old Brozer Club and Brown Club in the fall of a hat.
But rangers need more than a few old faces to solve this disorder. They are a club that needs a revolution from top to bottom. That may not be possible until summer.
The former Rangers captain, Barry Ferguson, has had the task of lifting the club's fortune
The list of potential candidates would be more extensive, and more accessible, in the summer. Steven Gerrard is certainly more likely to listen to any offer in the summer.
Whatever comes, this will be the first great proof of Stewart's skills as executive director. The club cannot continue to go through this cycle of recruiting poor managers, and then fire them, every year to 18 months.
From Giovanni Van Bruckhorst to Michael Beale and then to Clement, the next manager has to be one who stays.