Philippe Clement has asserted that the gap between his team and Celtic is not significant when both teams are at full strength.

This comment comes after his side’s third loss of the season to Celtic when they clashed at Celtic Park on Saturday. The result all but won Celtic the league.

Reflecting on the match and the season’s challenges, Clement pointed to the difficulties posed by injuries within his squad, especially when facing a fully-equipped Celtic team. “We know it’s challenging playing against a Celtic squad with all their players available and at that moment missing my players. That’s part of the story, of course,” Clement said to PLZ Soccer.

He then made a claim that over the past few months, his side is actually performing better adding, “You look at the points with two losses and a draw; we are one point more won in six months (compared to Celtic), so there is no big gap.”

He is sounding increasingly like his predecessor, Michael Beale and Steven Gerrard’s 86-minute game rant.

But, this mindset from the Rangers boss only suits Celtic. He has totally ignored that Celtic went large parts of the season without a fully fit squad. We went to Ibrox with a make-shift defence, had key players like Carter-Vickers, Abada and Hatate out for the Parkhead encounter and players getting back to fitness and Callum Mcgregor was not fit enough to start at Ibrox last month.

He’s totally underestimated Celtic, who had played Rangers off the park this season, and if he really thinks he’s not far off the soon-to-be champions, who will be strengthening in the summer, it could be another fun season next term.

I’d like to say that the excuses are getting boring after losses to Celtic, but I do find them amusing.