I've been told Rangers crisis is a bluff and now Clement will be checking his sleeves hoping it's true – Hugh Keevins

Those Rangers fans who are not in a state of denial over what’s happening at the club have been left demented by the thought of it all.

One radio caller, George by name, fell spectacularly into the first category the other day. What was going on at Ibrox was, he said, all a bluff. Philippe Clement was a clever man and had something up his sleeve that he would produce and prove the close season’s mishaps, mistakes and missteps were all an illusion.

George did not believe “for one minute” things were as bad as they were being made out to be concerning Rangers. Clement, for one, must be hoping that’s true while he examines the inside of his sleeve and checks its contents. The problem with alleging that things are not as bad as they seem is that you are obliged to put up evidence to the contrary. To do that, you need game changers in the dressing room.

And you just knew that, in the midst of the deepening gloom detected by those with a firm grip on reality, what you’d get from Todd Cantwell would be a transfer request instead of an offer to put his shoulder to the wheel for the good of the team. Clement clearly had his doubts about Cantwell from the off, illustrated when he hooked the player in the first half of a European tie weeks into his reign at the club.

He will be no big miss for the manager. Vaclav Cerny has arrived from Wolfsburg at the same time as Clement has issued an appeal for calm among a vexed support, as well as a plea for time to re-structure the team. The Czech Republic international might wonder what he’s walked into in Glasgow, a frame of mind Clement will well understand.

But Phil has to submit his squad for the qualifying rounds of the Champions League on Thursday and time is not on his side. Dynamo