Clement found himself surrounded by a posse of irate punters demanding answers on how things have got so bad, so quickly with their team already five points adrift of their bitter rivals just four games in. But with Tavernier, it got personal. “Do us a favour and f*** off,” spat one fan in a disgraceful rant. “You’re nothing but a loser.”

A nice way to treat the man who led the club to arguably their biggest title ever just three years ago, not to mention a Europa League final 12 months later, eh? Clement’s own emotions have cooled since that painful defeat and he was calm enough on Friday as he sat down for his first media conference since that Old Firm loss to write those shocking scenes off as the result of tempers boiling over in the “heat of the moment”. And in the cold light of day, he could only praise the way his captain has responded to that ugly encounter.

“Very mature,” he said. “We talked about [what happened]. It’s not a nice thing. If you’re a captain, you’re a symbol of a team. And people see you that way. I had the same experiences before in Brugge. And I was there 10 years like Tav.