Michael Beale sees unsettling Rangers truth emerge as coded dressing room messages prove he was doomed

Being partial to the occasional Belgian chocolate you’d think is about as much as John ‘Cowboy’ McCormack has in common with Philippe Clement.

But on closer inspection they are managerial chips off the same block. My old Queen’s Park boss also instilled the same need to tread carefully and feelings of trepidation ahead of every team talk. Cowboy’s look of disdain, the intensity of anything which caused him dissatisfaction.

Our former Spiders skipper Paul Martin’s pre-match routine to make himself physically sick in the toilet was possibly triggered by having a manager who placed higher demands than most – but he has never admitted to that possibility. That ability to shock a dressing room into an upturn in fortunes isn’t always about coaching ability, it’s almost always about being able to crack the whip. It’s also why the secret to Clement’s impact at Rangers is the Belgian’s stare, authoritative look, his stern and naturally humourless demeanour. When it comes to football management, visuals are everything, the body language, unspoken authority and gravitas.

The eye contact, or lack of, matters more than any plotting on a tactics board and is why the Light Blues are unbeaten after six games in the post Michael Beale era. Human nature’s also played a huge part. Give a footballer an excuse to be lazy and some will grab it with both hands. There are stories about preconceived opinions of Beale being embedded inside the Ibrox dressing room long before he began leaning over Gio van Bronckhorst’s shoulder and turning the Louden into his local.

Doomed to failure, the Englishman will now know the players weren’t having him from day one. Clement’s arrival hasn’t suddenly made poor players good. The increase in motivation and