'Football animal': Philippe Clement opens up on Rangers appointment. explains style and why it's marathon over sprint
The 49-year-old Belgian was confirmed as the successor to Michael Beale following intense discussions between Rangers and a number of candidates. Formerly of Genk, Club Brugge and Monaco, Clement has won the Belgian top flight on three occasions and has been out of work since leaving the French outfit during the summer. Clement is convinced the current squad can adapt to management style and tactics, saying “there is more quality in this team than they are showing at the moment”.
Speaking to Rangers’ media channels, Clement said “I'm really proud, I'm happy. We had some really good talks with a lot of people at the club this last week, with people from the board, with investors, also with some old players. I had some talks with Thomas Buffel, for example. I'm really happy to be here. It was a sporting choice, to come here for the project. I see the potential of the club, the passion of the fans and these are the things that convinced me that this was the best choice.
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Hide Ad"I felt honesty, I felt the passion of the people for the club. I also feel that the team needs confidence, needs some new dynamic, so we talked about a lot of things. Things that can be better, things that can be good already. I am somebody who likes this passion, this fire. Full stadium, it is something that I missed at my previous club [Monaco]. I'm really excited to have my first game at Ibrox.
"It's not a pressure [expectation of winning], it's my life. Nobody can put more pressure on winning than myself. It's always been the case since I was a small child, I want to win everything I do. That's the mentality that I want to give my players and also convince them of my qualities because there is more quality in this team than they are showing at the moment.
"Of course you can use past experiences, I'm not going to talk all the time about the past and myself. That's not my style. But I know what is needed to win and it's important to believe in yourself, to have confidence, and hard work. There are no easy things. It's a competitive sport, you need discipline and hard work daily. I look at the wall here and all the titles the club has one, those are things I love. I want to see ambitious players who give the best of themselves every day.”
Clement knows that turning around a Rangers team that has already lost three of its eight Premiership matches already and trails leaders Celtic by seven points with not happen overnight. "I'm a football animal so I have watched all the matches of this season,” he said. "It's been busy! I get to know the staff and then it's about aligning everyone and being one strong family that wants results. It's now really important that everyone is focused and not looking too far ahead. It's a marathon, not a sprint. We need to implement how we want to play day by day.
"I want a playing style that's created about scoring goals, about being dominant, about winning also, not scoring goals and not giving away easy goals. At all my clubs we have needed time because it is not natural to do this automatically, but the moment it starts to work, you get more fluid football and a lot of goals. The qualities are here to do it. I want the Rangers family behind the players to push them to the next level.”