LET'S DO THE TWIST

Story of this season's title race might have another thrilling chapter - written by Rangers

- KEITH JACKSON

IS anyone else starting to think that we may have gone a bit early here? It was only a few weeks ago after all when this season's title race was being widely declared as pretty much done and dusted.

Celtic had just about stuck four in a row in the bag already and the main matter of interest centred around whether or not Aberdeen could hold onto the runners-up spot.

For his part, Philippe Clement was only hanging onto his job because rudderless Rangers didn't have anyone with the authority or mandate to sack him and a doubleheader against Spurs and Celtic was almost certain to bring around his inevitable demise.

And yet now here we are against all the odds, with Clement's credentials intact after a visit from Celtic managers past and present and his team beginning to look like it knows what it's doing after all.

Let's get one thing straight.

This should not be misconstrued as an apology to the Belgian.

It's far from it.

On the contrary, had he listened to his critics a little bit sooner and reached the same obvious conclusions then his side might not be stranded in such a distant second place, languishing as it does nine points behind bitter rivals Celtic in what has felt like a seemingly irretrievable position.

Yesterday's 0-0 draw for the champions against Dundee United has opened a door just slightly.

But it's still a long shot where Rangers and their manager are concerned.

Clement still has to carry the can for that because he was the man responsible for making the job a whole lot harder than it had to be in the first place.

He didn't rate BO Ianis Hagi, hardly played Nico Raskin and made up his mind that Hamza Igamane was nowhere near to being ready for first-team consideration.