Philippe Clement is starting to sound like a broken record.
With every bad result he oversees, there is a growing sense that this is a manager who has lost his grip on reality.
We saw a glimpse of that last season. After a 3-3 draw with Celtic at Ibrox in April, Clement made the bizarre claim that his team had been the ‘moral victors’.
That was, of course, complete nonsense. Everyone knew it.
That match was a huge missed opportunity for Rangers against a Celtic side who were up for grabs in the title race.
Clement looked defeated during his team’s defeat to Aberdeen at Pittodrie
Some of Clement’s comments are reminiscent of former Rangers boss Caixinha above
Clement is in full-time discussions with referee Craig Beaton and his officials
Then, after a crushing 3-0 defeat to Celtic earlier this season, he was filmed arguing with irate punters outside Ibrox.
Clement continues to plead for time and patience and emphasizes that this is a young team and a new group of players.
But his comments after the 2-1 defeat to Aberdeen on Wednesday night felt like a new low – and frankly the fans are tired of listening to them.
The Rangers manager claimed it was one of his team’s best performances of the season and rattled on about how a goal was disallowed because someone’s toenail was offside.
Seriously, is this guy real?
His comments were demeaning and demonstrative of a manager who is fundamentally failing to understand the job he is in.
Pedro Caixinha was chased out for things like this, standing knee-deep in bushes, arguing with supporters and talking about dogs and caravans.
He was a disgrace.
Granted, Clement is a manager with more substance than Caixinha and has won league titles in Belgium, but his comments are no less ridiculous.
After losing at Aberdeen and making all sorts of excuses in his post-match press conference, this was the night he entered the realm of total delusion.
This is not a young team, as he claims. Sure, it has one or two younger players like Ross McCausland, Connor Barron and Nana Kasanwirjo.
But there are also many seasoned campaigners.
James Tavernier, Jack Butland, Robin Propper, Leon Balogun and Tom Lawrence are all the other side of 30.
Clement questions his team during the devastating 2-1 defeat at Aberdeen
The Rangers manager’s post-match apologies are becoming tiresome for angry fans
The Belgian is completely dejected as his team trails Aberdeen and Celtic by nine points
Tavernier is the club captain and has made more than 450 appearances for Rangers. Butland is an ex-England international.
Lawrence is an international midfielder for Wales. Balogun is 36 years old and has almost 50 caps for Nigeria to his name.
Nedim Bajrami is 25 and played for Albania at the European Championships this summer. This is not a team of young kids, despite Clement’s claims to the contrary.
His excuse that they are a new group also doesn’t hold water. We are now in November and Rangers are showing no tangible signs of progress.
If anything, they are going further backwards. Aberdeen have a new manager and some new players, but that won’t stop them from making a brilliant start to the season.
What Jimmy Thelin has come up with at Pittodrie absolutely drives a bus through Clement’s arguments and his incessant pleas for patience.
Clement is grasping at straws.
By all accounts, he is done as Rangers manager.
The only saving grace may be the fact that there is no one above him at the executive level to pull the trigger.