Under-fire Philippe Clement insists he hasn’t sought out the Rangers board for assurances on his Ibrox future.
But the struggling Gers gaffer is confident he still has the backing of his Light Blues bosses despite his team’s dismal start to the season. Wednesday’s Pittodrie loss to Aberdeen means Clement’s side have fallen a massive nine points off Jimmy Thelin’s Premiership pacesetters and joint leaders Celtic just 10 games in.
It’s a intolerable situation for a growing portion of the Ibrox support. But Record Sport revealed online that Gers chiefs had decide to stand firm in the face of fan outrage and back their manager for now. Sources close to the beleaguered Belgian told us: “Pressure from outside – media and fans – is very high but within the club, they’re staying calm.”
Clement broke cover for the first time since the damaging Dons defeat as he held his pre-match press conference ahead of Sundays Premier Sports Cup semi-final showdown against Motherwell. And he revealed there had been no showdown talks with the Ibrox hierarchy.
He said: I haven’t had discussions about that the last couple of weeks, they’ve been really busy with a lot of other things in the club.” But asked if he felt interim chairman John Gilligan and his fellow directors still had faith in him as manager, Clement declared: “I’m very confident about that because that was also the really clear message, to step in a story for a longer term.
“They knew everything about the numbers, about what was necessary and what consequences it can have. It’s about small margins, like last season, taking those margins and making it better again.
“Last season we turned it around in a really short period, I’m convinced that can happen now also. But of course I wish it was at Aberdeen that we took the victory there, that would have been the big step forward. We didn’t manage that.
“We’re going to continue fighting to get results our way and to make things better. For sure more consistent, to get more football that we saw against Malmo, against Steaua Bucharest.
“I’m going to work really hard on that. I’m going to do the same as I did last season and the same as I’m doing now. I’ll do a little bit more in the club than at that moment because there are also a lot of other things to do. But no, for sure I’m very confident about that.
“I feel also how the team works, how they were in the meeting also today. It’s also not a team that don’t take responsibility. They took responsibility in things. The staff took responsibility, I take responsibility and we all go forward to make things better.
“I want to do that. I love this club. I knew what big challenge we would have.
“I could not say it out loud too much the last couple of months. There are still things more clear after this with [this week’s financial] numbers, so I can put a little bit more context in that way. And we’re going to work hard to make this happen really fast.”
With Gers still hunting for senior execs to replace former CEO James Bisgrove and departed chairman John Bennett, Clement has previously admitted he’s been forced to take on additional duties amid a power vacuum.
But he refused to make an issue of that after being quizzed on the length of time it’s taking to complete the head-hunting process. He said: “I don’t want to talk about that now. I want to talk about the sportive side. That’s my job to do.
“There were other things to fill in or still needs to be filled in now. I’m giving my best to do everything, every moment that I’m awake for this club in that way.
“And I know that the people in the club, they’re working hard to solve all these questions that you talked about that before. There are other people to talk about that.”
Clement is set to welcome back Vaclav Cerny for tomorrow’s trip to Hampden but Ross McCausland is a doubt. Ridvan Yilmaz and Rabbi Matondo are back in training but unlikely to feature against Well.