Only League Cup final win can 'help Philippe Clement's fortunes' - Dodds

Philippe Clement can keep his job as Rangers manager if results keep ticking along, but he will need to lift the League Cup if he is to win the Rangers fans back.

That's according to former Rangers striker and Sportsound pundit Billy Dodds, who also said the atmosphere at Ibrox is "getting close to toxic".

Rangers were roundly booed at half-time at Hampden Park on Sunday with the score 1-0 to Motherwell at the break, before they turned it around in the second half.

Speaking on Radio Scotland, Dodds said: "The board are probably doing the right thing in terms of giving them a bit of breathing space, but along with that has got to come results.

"You get the feeling if they go away to Olympiakos and they lose that game and anything goes wrong against Hearts, you get the feeling the board won't give him that breathing space - just because of where the fans are.

"The fans are turning, it's getting close to toxic," Dodds continued. "We'll not be talking like this if Rangers keep getting results. But if something goes wrong, I think that atmosphere will come back and I would worry for Philippe Clement if that happens."

The Belgian's only Rangers silverware so far was last season's League Cup, beating Aberdeen 1-0 in the final. However, he is yet to beat Celtic as Rangers boss.

"That's the kind of thing that's going to have to happen if they're going to turn around a fair percentage of the fans," Dodds added. "It's going to take results ticking along before that final and then going on to win it for something astronomical to happen - like the fans to really buy back into it because they are on the edge.

"You heard them, everybody who was there or even listening to TV or radio, heard the reaction. It was borderline toxic. To turn that around is going to need a massive result, and it's going to take a cup final win against Celtic to achieve that.

"It's going to take that sort of result to help Philippe Clement's fortunes."