If Celtic do what they do best, then this could be Philippe Clement’s final bow in Glasgow.
The Rangers boss is yet to beat Celtic and lost two major finals in 2024 – the Scottish Cup when Adam Idah scored a dramatic late winner and then the penalty shootout thriller in the League Cup final last month.
Brendan Rodgers has seen off many Rangers managers during his time in Glasgow and you sense another is closer than ever to biting the dust.
If Celtic beat Rangers at Ibrox, then they will go 17 points clear at the top of the Premiership table and edge closer to the title.
A lot has been said about the gap between Celtic and Rangers, some, like Graeme Souness, have remained deluded, whilst others, like Martin O’Neill, have spoken the truth.
But, at least, there is one Rangers pundit willing to say it like it is and Kris Boyd delivered that on a plate to Clement ahead of the derby.
Kris Boyd slams Philippe Clement’s talk of financial gap between Celtic and Rangers
Boyd seems to be fearing the worst ahead of Celtic’s trip to Ibrox and how the champions always seem to ‘come out on top’, no matter what.
But the former striker wanted to pick up on some comments made by Clement and the so-called ‘financial gap’ between Celtic and Rangers.
Boyd rightfully dropped truth bombs to Clement by telling him that the financial gap between, the rest of the teams in Scotland and Rangers, is ‘probably bigger than the one from Rangers to Spurs or Celtic’, as he told Sky Sports News (01/01/25 at 10:15 am).
Yes, Celtic continue to beat Rangers, but the title isn’t just won in the derby games, you have to beat the rest also and Boyd delivered a dose of reality to the under-fire boss regarding that too.
“You look at Rangers right now, they are 14 points behind Celtic having lost only once to them, so they have dropped a lot of points in the league,” said Boyd.
“Philippe Clement spoke about the financial gap in Europe and against Celtic as well. The financial gap to the rest of the teams in Scotland to Rangers is probably bigger than the one from Rangers to Spurs or Celtic. You go back to a few weeks ago people were saying, ‘if Rangers beat Celtic, then it could be down to six points’. You are now looking at it saying ‘Rangers need to beat Celtic to stop it going to 17’.
“When you look at Philippe Clement in the last few weeks especially, he has tried to hang onto the cup final, in terms of where Rangers are at. But the reality is, it was a one-off game. Can Rangers cause problems to Celtic in one-off games? Yes, they can. Even when they have played well in those games, Celtic seem to have come out on top. The reality is when you look at the table, you are 14 points behind and what two points ahead of Aberdeen. They haven’t won a game in eight!”
Clement’s record against Celtic
It makes for grim reading for Clement and it could get worse by the time the day is out.
Even if Celtic beat Rangers, that might not be the worst of it for the Belgian because it’s likely that he will be booted out of the door.
Either way, ever since the 50-year-old replaced Michael Beale as Rangers manager in 2023, he has played six matches against Celtic and never won.
| Matches against Celtic | Wins | Draws | Losses | Points Per Games |
| 6 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0.17 |
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