With a comparable win percentage, Philippe Clement has now played in the same numer of Scottish Premiership games as his much-maligned Rangers predecessor Michael Beale. Beale was actually praised for his record during his first campaign in charge after taking over from Giovanni van Bronckhorst and improving fortunes – although questions were raised over a failure to get close to Celtic in the games that mattered. A very similar narrative is now building around Clement after he dragged them back into a title race but has just one draw from three derbies after coming up short again in the recent defeat.
After taking over in December 2022, the Englishman won 14 from his first 15 games, the other game being a 2-2 draw with the Hoops. The first defeat was a 3-2 away derby and a couple of weeks later there was another defeat, this time on the road to Aberdeen.
Those were the only defeats of his first campaign but it was nowhere near as good at the start of the 2023/24 season, starting off in the worst possible fashion by losing to Kilmarnock. Soon after there were losses to Celtic and Aberdeen and the latter ultimately cost Beale his job.
