GARY KEOWN: Clement is on a hiding to nothing at Ibrox

Only four days left for chairman John Bennett to come out with the ‘fuller, personal update’ promised on his chaos-stricken club. 

And only nine, perhaps, until the fixture that sends the binfire that is the ongoing mismanagement of Rangers raging out of control.

Philippe Clement, explaining for the umpteenth time a couple of weeks ago that life at Ibrox is nothing like he expected, insisted he was motivated to stick with the major rebuild needed for the long term. He had to say that, though, didn’t he?

If the manager has any sense, he’ll already have his representatives looking around for potential exit routes — because he is on a hiding to nothing here, in a volcanic environment that could easily send his career up in flames. In double-quick time.

That Rangers have to stick with Clement is clear. He’s their last hope, really. He has a pedigree of coaching success from his time at home in Belgium and an understanding of the fact that the place needs sorted out from top to bottom.

The real question to be asked right now is whether he is willing to stick with them when it all reaches a crescendo. Which seems unavoidable right now.

There are elements of the support already unhappy with the lack of structure and defined style of play around the team in pre-season and the way a title challenge collapsed towards the end of last term.

And no matter what Bennett says when and if he speaks this week, the idea that there is going to be endless patience for another full-scale reconstruction job is pie-in-the-sky stuff.

Their fans, with just three trophies in 13 years to show for huge levels of investment, have been patient enough.

Rangers need results, no matter what is going on off the field. Their Premiership opener against Hearts at Tynecastle on Saturday is looking like enough of a banana skin. However, the first leg of the third round of Champions League qualifiers the following Tuesday — likely to be away to Dynamo Kyiv in Poland — already looms ominously on the horizon.

Rangers need to get into the new-look league stage of European football’s premier competition. Celtic, with all their existing financial advantages, are already guaranteed to bank £40million from their involvement. If Rangers can’t access that kind of cash — and there don’t appear to be any other routes to riches at the moment — their arch-rivals are going to disappear over the horizon.

Lose to Dynamo — or Partizan Belgrade — and the gloves will be off. The free-for-all will start. And no one will be safe. Beat them and Rangers are still going to have to see off the likes of Red Bull Salzburg, Lille or Fenerbahce in the play-off later in August, which is another kettle of fish altogether.

Failure to make it into the Champions League proper feels inevitable right now. The squad is nowhere near ready, even though everyone inside the club has had these qualifying dates in the calendar for months. And everyone is going to be caught up in the firestorm that will follow.

The emerging habit of blaming everything on former CEO James Bisgrove, now long gone in Saudi Arabia, is not going to wash. And neither is asking supporters — still in the dark over how long Ibrox is going to be closed down for building work on the Copland Road end — to accept more failure. Business, in terms of ins and outs, has not been done quickly enough this summer. Few of Rangers’ signings so far look capable of making immediate improvements. Clinton Nsiala and Hamza Igamane are project players. Jefte and Liam Kelly are back-ups. Oscar Cortes is unproven, Connor Barron is not exactly a first-pick and Vaclav Cerny, who does appear to have the CV required, will be going into competitive action without having played a minute for the club in friendlies.

There’s no doubt John Lundstram, Connor Goldson, Borna Barisic, Sam Lammers, Ryan Jack and Kemar Roofe had to go. James Tavernier, Todd Cantwell, Ianis Hagi, Jose Cifuentes, Cyriel Dessers and others following them out the door is perfectly understandable, too.

However, Rangers need to bring in improvements on all those players — plus the likes of Abdallah Sima, now back at parent club Brighton — and we’re on the brink of the new season with them nowhere even close to replacing like with like.

As for a new CEO, someone with the kind of experience Bisgrove did not possess, it’s anyone’s guess what is going on. Bennett is going to have to front up to all of this sometime. Whether he likes it or not, it’s all on him. He has been on the board for nearly a decade and the place is still in a never-ending state of upheaval.

He allowed Michael Beale to spend £21m on failures without a sporting director to keep him in check. He put his faith in Bisgrove. He is the figurehead of a Rangers that, almost unbelievably, is starting a campaign paying to rent out Hampden Park — as well as growing its grass — because Ibrox is unusable.

And that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Since Clement replaced Beale last October, he has spoken consistently about taking over a club that wasn’t fit for purpose.

Discovering an unused, expensive cryochamber was just the first part of peeling the onion to discover that the medical and sports science departments needed a proper look at, with the team’s long-standing injury issues termed ‘the biggest puzzle that I ever saw’.

The annual event of experienced players walking away for nothing was described by him as a ‘crazy situation’ that has to stop. He talked of having to teach those in the building ‘what it is to be a top professional’.

That was before Kieran Dowell got injured on ‘a bad pitch’ on a mid-season break in La Manga, which sounded less than elite-level in its organisation.

When taking over, he admitted he knew that Rangers were not the wealthiest club in the world.

That’s why it was even more concerning to hear him admit a fortnight back, when revealing that he has to sell before he can buy, that ‘I had other expectations when I came in October, I have to say’.

Clement has made mistakes himself — pinning his hopes on Dessers and Fabio Silva, for example — and looked like a bloke teetering on the edge when branding his team ‘moral winners’ after a snatched draw against Celtic at Ibrox.

However, he appears to be a guy in an impossible job right now. A job that he’s been trying to explain the complexities of to anyone who would listen since he walked in the door.

He must have known a day of reckoning would come — whether it is against Dynamo Kyiv or Fenerbahce or domestic opposition — if things didn’t improve. And they haven’t.

What’s more, even though he alerted everyone to the warning signals, he isn’t going to escape from grief when it comes. That’s when he might decide he really can’t take any more, if he hasn’t already.

Clement looks like a guy sold an absolute pup. And there can be no serious expectation of unending loyalty from him if this all ends up the way it’s heading.

Everyone has their breaking point. It’s coming for long-suffering Rangers punters. And surely for their manager, too.

Bennett’s big speech had better be good.  

Collum is talking sense... but we’ve heard it all before

Willie Collum made the right noises in addressing the media over the changes he will be required to make in his new role as the SFA’s head of refereeing.

Having refs mic’d-up and ready to inform the stadium of their decisions at the pitchside monitor is good. Monthly public explanations over decisions right and wrong, partly to educate broadcasters and people within football who don’t seem to understand the rules, are the bare minimum we should expect.

Getting Scottish officials, male and female, back into major international tournaments following a depressingly fallow period should be essential.

‘We don’t talk enough about the mental wellbeing of referees,’ he said. ‘We need to understand why referees make mistakes.’

This is all well and good. There’s only one problem. Most of the ideas put forward by Collum have been aired before and almost nothing has come of them to date.

In the usual whirl of past pre-season briefings, leading official John Beaton said that referees were keen on explaining decisions and promoting transparency. Last June, SFA chief executive Ian Maxwell was talking about an openess to refs wearing microphones and the Professional Game Board appointing a voice coach to have officials properly prepared. Well, we’re still waiting for any of that.

Most fans understand the need to help referees. However, referees aren’t helping themselves. Or, at least, the national association isn’t.

Collum must be judged on his actions rather than his words. He’s been part of a set-up for years that is insular and moves towards reshaping itself at snail’s pace. So, forgive those of us who question whether he is really the dynamic agent of change that is required.

We need more convincing than a media conference that just served up the same ideas that have been banging around for ages and ages with no tangible results.

Breakout season would be just reward for Robby 

Hearing your name chanted by the home punters before the first half of your debut appearance is even over is a good way to kick off life at a new club. And the progress of goalkeeper Robby McCrorie at Kilmarnock is one story that is going to be really, really interesting to keep tabs on over the course of the coming season.

McCrorie did well in Killie’s 1-1 draw with Cercle Brugge in the Europa League qualifiers. One mistake in failing to clear a corner was compensated for and he made one strong save from Abdoul Ouattara.

The 26-year-old made only seven appearances during his time at Rangers, but recorded five clean sheets. It’s just tough he had Allan McGregor and then Jack Butland to try to oust.

However, Scotland boss Steve Clarke is a fan and, assuming he is not going to resign after the catastrophe that was the Euros, will surely be thinking about recalling him to the national squad for the Nations League.

McCrorie, despite his age, has given real signs he is more than capable. Potentially exciting. Becoming a club regular could easily open up the path to becoming Scotland’s No 1 in the not-too-distant future.

Everything is opening up ahead of him now. It will be fascinating to see if those hands of his are reliable enough to grab the opportunity.