Kris Boyd demands Ibrox ‘Clearout’ by Philippe Clement after Rangers loss v Celtic
Kris Boyd has demanded a “clearout” at Ibrox this summer after Rangers suffered a 2-1 defeat to Celtic to end their title hopes.
John Lundstram scored an own-goal and was sent off in the first half after Matt O’Riley had given the Hoops the lead, while Cyriel Dessers’ goal wasn’t enough to help Philippe Clement’s side claw back any points.
And speaking after the game while live on Sky Sports (11 May), Boyd admitted that he feels this will be the last time some of these players will ever play at Celtic Park again and called for “a lot of reinforcements” in the transfer window.
“You’ve got a cup final in a few weeks, and it’s a huge game for Philippe Clement now as well,” he said.
“Because that’s now a few Old Firm games he’s lost. You’re then saying the start of next season is going to be back here for the first game as well. The Scottish Cup final is now huge, because the last thing you want is people then turning around saying that’s now three, four, five Old Firm games without a victory for Philippe Clement.
“Listen, I’ll be honest, yeah there’s a Scottish Cup final a couple of weeks away, but that’ll be the last time you see a lot of these players play against Celtic here in the league.
“There’s got to be a clearout. There’s got to be a fresh start. Lundstram and Barisic are going to leave on frees and few others ones will go. I’m sure Philippe Clement will be looking to wheel and deal to try and get his type of players in.
“The way to hurt teams is pace and I don’t really see a lot of pace in that Rangers team, so there’s got to be a lot of reinforcements coming in in the summer.”
Rangers must change things to catch Celtic
It’s more than fair to say that the Rangers team currently plays their best football when they are under zero pressure and have no expectations.
The season started poorly and when Clement came in to replace Michael Beale, nobody gave them a chance at winning the title but they fought back and even overtook Brendan Rodgers’ side in the table at one point.
But as soon as that happened the team crumbled and fell away, allowing Celtic right back into a position of power and that is a clear issue with the characters in the squad and the mentality of the players.
The only way to change that is to freshen things up, which means some big players and names will need to move on from Ibrox this summer for the team to find success.
There should be nobody who is considered untouchable in the squad, and a proper clearout would be welcomed by the fans too.
In other Rangers news, Sutton and Miller have clashed after a “dangerous” incident vs Celtic.
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