After nearly two weeks without a Philippe Clement press conference, Rangers will have various issues to discuss with the Belgian manager during a nearly half-hour briefing ahead of Sunday’s Premiership trip to Kilmarnock
Spending time with Clement is always an eye-opening experience. The 50-year-old marked his one-year milestone at Ibrox on Tuesday. “I need to be home by six o’clock,” he replied wryly when asked to reflect on his time at the helm. He is correct: a lot has transpired under his watch.
Rangers won the League Cup and came close to winning the league championship and the Scottish Cup last season. Clement has since overseen a radical overhaul of the squad, there have been delays in redevelopment work at Ibrox, necessitating a move to Hampden, and he has seen a chief executive and a chairman go this year alone.
He’s also been on the iconic Rugby Park plastic surface, making his lunchtime mission in Ayrshire perilous. Rangers need at least three points to keep up with Celtic and Aberdeen in the league standings.
Clement has evolved into more than just a football manager for Rangers. The resignations of CEO James Bisgrove and then-chair John Bennett due to illness have increased the former Monaco executive’s responsibilities. He has established himself as a figurehead. “Yeah, I had to do more things than I did before in the club,” Clement tells me. “But that’s going to change fast now, I think in the next couple of weeks and for sure in the next couple of months.”
How fast? “Well, what is soon for you?” Clement replies. “So, that’s a hazardous question to answer in Glasgow! “Or in France or Belgium.”
John Gilligan is now serving as chairman of Ibrox while the search for a new hierarchy continues. Clement and the 72-year-old do not communicate every day. “That’s not possible,” the manager says. “So he’s really busy, but we chat on a regular basis. Also featuring [directors] George Letham and Graham Park. We meet on a regular basis, and they bring me up to date on the club’s developments.”
Clement could easily identify this period as the most difficult in his career. Being the Rangers manager comes with a lot of attention. Clement dismisses it, noting prior challenges against Monaco, Genk, and Club Brugge. “I don’t know if you know the French media or the Belgian media, it’s not a big difference,” he replies with a laugh. “Don’t worry about it. However, a lot has transpired in the club that I did not predict a year ago. So we’re looking forward to making things better.
Injuries are one of the challenges that Clement must constantly deal with. The treatment room at Ibrox has been completely occupied since I walked in. To address the matter, the club hired new medical staff earlier this year. Danilo, a striker, might be in contention for the Kilmarnock trip, while left-back Ridvan Yilmaz is also making progress in his return. However, winger Oscar Cortes is still out for several weeks due to a knee injury.
Cortes joined Rangers on loan from Lens in January, but suffered a posterior muscular injury at home to Killie in March, ending his season. He tweaked his knee against Hearts on the first day of the season, then he injured himself again in training two games later last month. The predicament with the 20-year-old Colombian has some Rangers fans concerned that they have committed to a permanent deal for a player next summer.
Clement completely dispels this misconception. “Firstly I want to say that before he came to Rangers he didn’t have one injury, in all his career, not in Lens, not in Colombia, nothing,” said the manager. “So it’s not a player that the club wanted to bring in with a significant injury record, since those are things we’re looking into a lot more than we were in the past, because there have been multiple transfers with players who have had a lot of injuries in the past, and it has continued here.
“So, Oscar was unlucky with his injury last season; this is not the same one. And, while he has been unlucky, the medical staff does not believe he is prone to quick or easy injuries, or that he is not strong enough.
“It can also happen in a footballer’s career, and I hope this is his last. Because, in all of the moves that we’ve made, the medical staff has made it plain that they want to look into players’ pasts and get their thoughts on players who are in the building, whether they’re capable of playing a lot of games in a season.
“So that’s one of the most crucial considerations when deciding whether to sign a player or not. So it was the same with Oscar, where everyone on the medical staff was certain he was a player who would not sustain many injuries.”
Leave a Reply