Philippe Clement puts limit on Rangers team night outs and reveals when he will start looking at league table

The team that drinks together, wins together is an Ibrox motto dating back to the trophy-laden 1990s. Can Philippe Clement infuse that old spirit after sanctioning a recent night out as Rangers seek to crank up the pressure on Celtic against Ross County tonight?

Rangers manager Phillipe Clement sanctioned a team night out over the weekend - but admits there is a limit on such occasions. (Photo by Rob Casey / SNS Group)

As in war, the first casualty of a great sporting battle, in this case the race for the Premiership title between Celtic and Rangers, can be truth.

So it might be worth taking Philippe Clement's claim that he won't look at the league standings until May with a pinch of salt. And yet he makes the assertion that he's blissfully unaware of how the Premiership table looks with such unaffected sincerity, that you believe him. No more questions asked.

Well, perhaps one more. Is he really, if Rangers beat Ross County by a certain margin this evening, going to resist taking a peek?

Rangers will make it extra worthwhile for their supporters to spend Valentine’s night at Ibrox providing they can beat Don Cowie’s side by more than two clear goals. It would mean that for the first time since February 2022, as many as two managers ago, the Ibrox side will be above Celtic in pole position outwith the opening weekend of the season. Surely that is worth breaking the habit of a (managerial) lifetime and stealing a quick glance?

"No," stressed Clement. "What is the use of looking at a league table on (match)day one, eight, 17, 32? It is about being on top after the last day. I look at the table in the last two-three (match)days – and before that I put every second of every day that my eyes are open into the work to get as many points as possible. That is controlling the controllables."

Clement is not comfortable with any talk of "fragile" Ross County. However, there are few better words to describe a team who've scored in only one of their last six outings and conceded five goals against Motherwell last midweek in Derek Adams' last match in charge.

But the Ibrox manager is right to apply some caution. For the second league game in a row Rangers are facing opponents weaponised by a new manager, with the prospect of an upturn in performance this often entails. Cowie's first game in charge won't attract the Neil Warnock-inspired hullabaloo of last week against Aberdeen. There certainly won't be the same number of photographers arced around the away dugout. But County might be all the more dangerous for that. Few expect anything from them at all.

"I don't like that you say teams are 'fragile'," cautioned Clement. "Players always have their pride. Also, people who get the chance to be a coach suddenly, I had it two times. I was interim when a coach was sacked so you are super motivated and you give everything day and night. We expect a tough game as always. We need to break open the wall, we need to be really good with and without the ball and be focused on that.

"Ross County signed seven new players in the winter break so they are not the same team they were in the first round of the league."

Neither are Rangers, of course. Theirs is a happier camp, good vibes strengthened by a recent night out at the manager's behest, which of course immediately calls to mind the old Ibrox motto – usually attributed to Richard Gough, but in fact coined by Ian Durrant – that "the team that drinks together, wins together". The evidence for this claim was pretty sound since it was made during Rangers’ nine-in-a-row era. Although that was the 1990s and this is now.

“You have to be smart these days,” acknowledged Clement. “And you need to know in what moment, that’s the big difference. The game has become much more intense than 10, 20 years ago. So you don’t have many moments in a season when you can do it in a good way. That’s why I told the team when it was the moment to do it.

“And they did – and they had a lot of fun! That’s good, they are important moments. But you maybe only have three of those moments in a season. It’s not much."

Rangers have already had two under Clement, the first coming on the night they won the League Cup against Aberdeen in December. That leaves room for one more. Ideally for Rangers, it will be when the league title is secured, although they are also in the hunt for a domestic treble and face a tough last eight Scottish Cup tie at Easter Road against Hibs. Clement would surely happily sanction multiple nights out if Rangers can claim a Europa League title in Dublin as well. But that's looking slightly too far ahead, certainly as far as Clement is concerned. He has eyes only on tonight.

Much has changed since Rangers last faced Ross County in August, including both dugout incumbents. Clement never even got the chance to introduce himself to Adams, who has come and and gone in the interim. His brief reign will be chiefly recalled for various broadsides aimed at Scottish football, including how the standard of one recent game against Dundee was a hundred times worse than he saw while at former club Morecambe in the fourth tier in England.

Clement will have to inform Adams why he disagrees another time. “I am positive about Scottish football,” he said. “I think the atmosphere is amazing. Amazing everywhere we go. There is a real football culture here.

“I think with Rangers and with Celtic we could compete to be the top in the French league, but with less budget, for sure.”

Another reason to avoid being too down on Scottish football came, perhaps surprisingly, from the office of the England manager last weekend.

Gareth Southgate confirmed that he is considering calling up Rangers ‘keeper Jack Butland for next month’s friendlies against Brazil and Belgium. If he does, and Butland plays, it will be the first time since Paul Gascoigne that an England player has been capped out of Ibrox. “The only thing I can say is that if Jack is selected for the national team then he is totally ready for that and he has all the qualities to do it,” said Clement.

Southgate might be advised to visit Ibrox on a night when goals-chasing Rangers aren't quite so intent on ensuring Butland is a spectator.