The boos come full-time at Ibrox on Saturday were muted, but only because few remained to make a sound. Those who’d lasted the course have little energy for anger these days.

Apathy far supersedes raw emotion among Rangers supporters because to be angry requires a degree of hope and belief. Most of all it exudes a lot of energy and understandably, it feels like there’s little left. Right now, the prospect of not finishing third is the focus, not winning a title. It must be said that rarely in recent memory has belief in the product on the pitch and direction off of it been so low at Ibrox. Considering what the past decade has entailed, that’s saying something.

Rangers are scoring at a rate under 1.5 goals per game and sit on course for a 54-goal season, in the past two campaigns they’ve managed 87 and 93. That means if the current trend continues they’ll score almost half of their tally from two seasons ago. They’re closer to mid-table in the Scottish Premiership than the top with Celtic expanding the gap to 11 points on Saturday evening. In fact, Philippe Clement’s side are as close to Kilmarnock in 10th as their Old Firm rivals at the summit (they have admittedly played one or two games fewer than the majority of the table). What’s more, the average age of Rangers’ starting 11 in the league this season? 27.2, four months younger than last season’s 27.6.

After a 2-1 defeat away at Aberdeen before the last international break the Rangers Review argued that the club’s desire to stick with a manager and project cannot come at the expense of what’s happening on the park. The luxury of time in football can only exist in exchange for progress. Clement was handed a contract extension on the eve of the new campaign by John Bennett, the now-departed chairman, who was determined to stick with the man he picked to clean up the Michael Beale era. While the circumstances faced in the job have been abject, Clement cannot escape the fact that being middle of the park heading into December is too.

Rangers’ approach after chopping and changing managers at will in recent autumns has seemingly been to hope that doing the exact opposite, not accepting any level of poor performance or dropped points will cost Clement his job, should return opposite results. That has been the lesson learned from recent years rather than implementing a strong football executive structure only in the works now after further ground has been lost. The past few months have been spent treading water, hoping that a new team of decision-makers will be in place sooner rather than later. 

Even on the assumption that Clement would be given time because he’s won in the past, who has ever been accurately placed to judge the metric of progress with football expertise in the Ibrox board or executive set-up? Once again the Rangers board have been persuaded of a manager’s merits and judgement to lead the club's football department.

The Rangers Review exclusively revealed over the weekend that Patrick Stewart is set to finally end the search for a CEO at Ibrox. Alongside incumbent chairman Malcom Offord the new executive team face a big choice early on - what to do about a manager who is not improving his team?

While Nils Koppen was promoted to technical director last week in practice his role has not altered all that much from the one agreed last year. The Belgian does not have hiring and firing jurisdiction over the manager. Sources have previously suggested that a further football executive, in the form of a director of football or sporting director, could follow the new CEO in the door depending on their background. Stewart’s legal expertise would suggest that the need for an overarching sporting director role Rangers purposely moved away from in 2023 is required now more than ever.

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Asked after Saturday’s draw whether he was witnessing enough in performances that suggested results will change, Clement insisted: “Yeah, for sure. For sure. 100%. If we play like we play in the second half we will win a lot of games. But it needs to be every time like that. And we need to create a team and a mentality and a culture also to have that every three days. For a lot of boys it's new, they need to step in that culture because that's what Rangers is about.”

The showing against Jim Goodwin’s side, who remain three points adrift of Rangers, was not new. Like the recent 2-1 win over Motherwell at Hampden it was only when an opposition team took the lead and sat off the game that Clement’s tactical approach had the desired effect. In moving away from last season’s direct attacks if Rangers don’t have space to hit behind a defence they rarely create opportunities. Danilo and Ianis Hagi’s impact from the bench in place of Cyriel Dessers and Mohamed Diomande was felt, so why didn’t they start the match? Nedim Bajrami, brought to address the creative lack in midfield, continues to start from the left with limited influence.

The game’s trendline shows that Rangers did indeed create opportunities on the day, but only after the break and only when the visitors retreated. There was an element of poor luck but as Clement admitted after the game, there is “not much credit in the bank”.

The manager grew increasingly irate in the first-half at slow passages of play. There appears clear confusion on the part of the players who are encouraged to play vertical football in space that does not exist and risk the wrath of the home crowd when possession is inevitably lost. Aside from Vaclav Cerny, responsibility was consistently passed sideways.

There is an acceptance that the club’s footballing DNA and vision have flown with the wind of managerial change for far too long. That impacts everything: the academy structure, recruitment, player pathway, and results. 

Under Clement Rangers face an identity crisis from the outside looking in. With two Old Firms and Spurs visiting Ibrox over the next month, fixtures do not get easier. Rangers are 11 points behind and supporters feel more disconnected than ever. As a new executive team gets closer their first question is this - if things are not getting better on the pitch what do they do about it?