Clement escapes Rangers chewing out as something odd happens over probing questions – how the Q&A really went down

It's been quite the international break for Philippe Clement.

What started with the Rangers manager being chewed out by a small but furious group of fans on Ibrox’s doorstep ended with the big Belgian having a couple of hundred punters eating out the palm of his hand a few yards along the road at New Edmiston House. Whether the supporters who forked out 40 quid a head to see him speak at Tuesday night’s fan forum will still be lapping up what Clement has to say come Sunday depends entirely on whether his side can avoid making another dog’s dinner of this weekend’s trip to Tannadice.

The 50-year-old hasn’t quite reached the point where he’s had his last meal as Ibrox boss. But last week’s disastrous derby defeat has severely burned his standing in the eyes of the fans who once adored him. He’s had five goes at toasting the club’s bitter rivals and failed on every occasion, with this year’s title bid also seemingly up in smoke with Celtic five points clear just four games into the new Premiership campaign.

The expectation was that he’d face another angry grilling from the Ibrox legions as he sat down for this week’s Q&A. But that was never going to be the case in the tightly stage-managed setting as he took his seat next to compere Ali De Foy. Supporters desperate for answers on why things have gone so wrong so quickly this season were invited to submit their queries in writing.

Oddly, some of their more probing questions on his team’s never-ending injury issues, the decision to invest some of the club’s precious few millions into a project player like Hamza Igamane rather than the proven striker his squad has been crying out for, or why Ianis Hagi is good enough for Romania but apparently not for Rangers, failed to make