Philippe Clement clarifies Celtic-Spurs 'out of our league' comment as Rangers face team selection compromise

Philippe Clement has challenged his players to make memories to last a lifetime as he sought to dismiss the financial gulf between Rangers and Spurs ahead of tomorrow’s Europa League clash.

The Ibrox manager seemed very deliberately to be rowing back from comments he made in the aftermath of his side’s 3-0 win at Ross County on Sunday, when he claimed forthcoming games against Spurs and then Celtic in the League Cup final were against rivals who were “financially out of our league”.

The claim was interpreted as the Belgian getting his excuses in early at the start of an arduous and potentially defining week for him and his team. He was slammed by some Ibrox fans for engaging in defeatist talk, even if much if not all of what he said was rooted in reality.

Rangers manager Philippe Clement during a training session the day before facing Tottenham in the Europa League. | SNS Group

He was in a more bullish mood at Ibrox at his latest pre-match press briefing, perhaps having been advised against taking such a line by club officials. He was asked if Tottenham’s recent poor form under former Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou meant he was more optimistic about securing a result. He noted their recent 4-0 win over Manchester City. “They were not in such a bad place at that moment,” he smiled. “It's the Premier League, it's the highest level in the world.” Clement stressed that he would still believe Rangers could beat Spurs even if the London side had won every game this season.

He explained that he always believes any team of his can win a game of football, whatever the circumstances, citing when he played for Club Brugge in a 1-0 win over European champions AC Milan at the San Siro 21 years ago. The former defender explained that the financial gap was bridged that night. Money is not necessarily always a factor in the outcome.

“Everything can be bridged in one night,” he said. “I'm getting old. I had the luck and also the hard work on several of those nights when the gap was amazingly big. And those are also the best nights.

“If you then perform and you get the results, those are also the nights that you remember all of your life. Those are also the moments that, as a player, you remember with your teammates really well. In that way, I hope the players can give themselves - and as a team - a special night tomorrow.

Philippe Clement in action for Club Brugge during his playing days. (Photo by Tim De Waele/Getty Images) | Getty Images

“My own memories…? I don't want to look too old, because you're going to look up how long it was ago. But for example, with Club Brugge winning in the Champions League in AC Milan 0-1 (in 2003).

“That was the team that the year before won the Champions League with Dida, Cafu, Costacurta, Maldini, Seedorf, Shevchenko, Inzaghi and a few really good guys on the bench also. That was a really special evening. If we meet each other, and it doesn't happen so much, people still talk about that evening together. I had a few of those. Rangers have also had several of those in their history. They are the special evenings.”

The Belgian also added that he has managed against a Paris Saint-Germain side that included Lionel Messi, Mbappe and Neymar when he was manager of Club Brugge and Monaco. “Before the game, if you show images of them, and what they did in their career, it would be better to stay home. But it doesn't work that way,” he said.

“That's not football. It's about the team performance. Maybe some people took my words a little bit wrong after the Ross County game. It's not only about money. It's also about work and what players do together. Otherwise, it would be easy and every team that has more money would win every time. That's not the case. But the other teams need to work more. And that's what we need to do tomorrow evening.”

Rangers manager Philippe Clement during the pre-match press conference ahead of facing Tottenham in the Europa League. (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group) | SNS Group

Clement admits his team selection has been impacted by the tight turnaround between the eagerly awaited Europa League clash with Spurs and Sunday’s League Cup final against Celtic. “That's the reality,” he said. “If we would have played today or yesterday, it would have been different. Now it's a really short time in between the games. Yeah, I need to make different changes.”

He stressed that he could not afford for this to be a source of frustration. Rangers simply have to deal with it. “It doesn't work that way, because this is also a really good test in the depth of our squad," he said. "If we want to perform in four competitions, we need good depth in the squad to make these rotations. That's what you need as a manager at Rangers, at a club like Rangers. You must have enough depth to do it every three days and to perform in every competition.”

As for the inevitable Battle of Britain tag, he said it did not mean it matters any more or less to him or his players, though he accepts the fans might be more caught up in the hype. "It's good for the outside world and everything around it," he conceded. "It makes a lot of stories and that's exciting also for everybody. But for us, it stays the same if it's against an English team or a top other European team. But for the fans, maybe it can make a difference to show them how Scottish football is and all those things. So we want to do everything well for our fans so in that way, it can mean something else."