Under-fire Philippe Clement admits he’s taken on his biggest challenge EVER in trying to turn Rangers’ fortunes around.
The Ibrox gaffer is feeling the heat after his team slipped nine points behind Celtic and Aberdeen at the top of the Scottish Premiership. Clement is fighting to keep his job and faces a critical Premier Sports Cup semi-final with Motherwell at Hampden today.
The Belgian says he knew what he was getting into when he agreed a new contract in the summer – after the Ibrox board revealed financial cuts had to be made. Clement chose to stay and has attempted to rebuild the squad with younger players. But the Gers boss – who won titles in Belgium with Club Brugge and Genk – says getting this team back on track might be his biggest task yet.
Clement said: “In the summer, I stepped with my two feet into a project that I knew was maybe the biggest challenge ever with this club. With the expectations here and everything around it. But I did it with full conviction and my passion for this club. So that’s what I’m going to keep doing in the next few months.”
Clement was charged with starting a new ‘cycle’ at Ibrox – allowing 16 players to leave the club and signing players on a reduced budget. He’s now operating without a CEO, sporting director or permanent chairman at Ibrox, with interim chief John Gilligan at the helm. But when asked how determined he was to see the job through, the 50-year-old said: “I’m very determined about it. And I know at this moment I’m the face of it. There’s nobody else talking or explaining things. So that means everything is towards me.
“But I’m very determined to make it really successful because this club deserves that. And that was the main reason for changing things in the summer.”