Michael Stewart insists he has sympathy for Rangers manager Philippe Clement.

The former Hearts and Hibernian midfielder recognises that while it's not been good enough on the park for the Ibrox side, the Belgian has hardly been given the most ideal circumstances to perform his job as the head coach of the first team.

On Sunday afternoon, after a recent decent run of form, Rangers came up short against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park. 

Marley Watkins struck late to secure a 1-0 win for Derek McInnes' side in the Scottish Premiership clash.

The result saw Rangers fall a point further behind Celtic and Aberdeen in the title race, with those sides sharing the spoils after a 2-2 stalemate on Saturday.

Stewart pointed to the recruitment policy and how much of a say Clement was allowed to have in that regard during the summer.

He then alluded to Rangers' next three matches - FCSB, St Mirren and Aberdeen - and how crucial they could be in Clement's future at the club.

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"I feel for him to a certain extent because I look at the squad and it's not as strong as it was before," he said on Sportscene. "How much of that is down to poor recruitment that he's been involved in? And how much of it is down to cost-cutting?

"I think there is an element of that there but one thing for certain is that the two games in the next week are huge and have potential ramifications.

"They have St Mirren at home off the back of the European game and then it's Pittodrie. That is a mouth-watering game and is one that is going to tell us a lot about how their season is going to unfold."