Philippe Clement tells a story involving a professor, problem solving and securing a title triumph over adversity as boss of Genk.
It’s a colourful tale to back up the Belgian’s belief that whatever comes his way during his time in Glasgow will be old hat and nothing that he hasn’t coped with before. After a calendar year as boss at Ibrox, it was a time for reflection – and he’s adamant Scottish football’s madhouse of finger-pointing and criticism is on a par with what he’s had to endure abroad. When asked if the last 12 months of scrutiny had been the most intense of his coaching career, Clement was deadpan when he said: “What scrutiny? I don’t know if you know the French media or the Belgian media, it’s not a big difference, boys, really. Don’t worry about that. No, no.”
Then it was on to a recounting of his time at Genk when he led his side to only their fourth Belgian First Division title success after having more than a few spanners thrown into their works. He said: “Is it the most challenging season? No, it’s difficult to say because it’s not the end of the season yet.
“I’ve had really challenging things along the way and I can tell you a lot of stories as a player or a manager. If things are challenging and you reach your goals, you have even more satisfaction.
“We had that with Genk, they sold my playmaker Alejandro Pozuelo four weeks before the play-off started in Belgium. We were in first position. Everybody was saying Genk could die without him because he was the best player.
“He went to the United States and I could not stop it. He had a clause in his contract that he could leave. So I could not stop him and he could earn five times more than he was earning in Genk.
“We had a lot of talks but I could not convince him. So everybody thought it was finished for Genk that moment without the playmaker.
“Then the last game before the play-offs started, the guy who would replace him was playing at No.8 position, Ruslan Malinovskyi, got a red card. He was suspended for nine matches and the play-offs were 10 games.
“I had to look for a solution and found a professor who could explain that it was not a red card. He helped me at the tribunal to explain why – and in the end Ruslan got no suspension.
“He played the play-offs and he was one of the best players and we won the title. So it was challenging, yes – but if you reach your goals in the end you can feel proud of yourself.”
Clement leads his side at Kilmarnock this lunchtime with a belief his team are capable of making up the ground to rivals Celtic in the Premiership chase. He insists the pitfalls that have marked his year at Ibrox will always come with the territory and he relishes the challenge.
He said: “Having challenges, I think it’s part of this job. I don’t think there are many seasons that managers can say afterwards: ‘Oh, this season was really easy, no challenges, no injuries, nothing happened in the club’.
“A lot of things happened in the club that I didn’t expect one year ago. I know that but we look forward to making things better. People always talk about the good things afterwards and they forget the challenges along the way. So it’s part of our job.”
The off-field musical chairs in the Rangers boardroom now has John Gilligan as interim chairman. Clement revealed the ongoing vacancies in a host of key backroom roles have increased his day-to-day duties but he expects new appointments shortly to ease his load.
Clement also outlined his line of communication with the Light Blues’ temporary chief. He said: “I don’t speak to John every day – that’s not possible as he’s busy with a lot of things – but we speak regularly with each other.
“I also speak with George Letham and Graham Park. So we meet regularly and they keep me informed about how things are evolving in the club. I’ve had to do more things than I did before in the club. 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.”
Rangers will be without playmaker Ianis Hagi for the trip to Ayrshire after being red carded on his long-awaited return against St Johnstone. Clement insists the Romanian will use his two-game ban to get himself back up to speed.
He said: “Hagi will now to use this time, these two weeks, to train hard and get minutes with the second team to gain rhythm. He will train hard like in the pre-season and use this period in a positive way.”