Philippe Clement reveals rivals targeted his children as Rangers manager rebuts Graeme Souness concern

With club consultants like that, who needs outside detractors? It would have been entirely understandable had this been Philippe Clement’s reaction to Graeme Souness’ public admission that he favoured Frank Lampard over the Belgian for the Rangers managerial post.

Rangers manager Philippe Clement says he will take his time over deciding whether Alex Rae and Steven Davis will be permanent members of his backroom team. (Photo by Ross MacDonald / SNS Group)

Clement though, at least publicly, has chosen to be dismissive of the heavyweight Ibrox figure giving the former Chelsea captain the edge as he took part in the discussions with “two outstanding candidates” which ended with the Rangers board plumping for the two-time Clug Brugge title winner. Yet, Clement can offer a rebuttal over what Souness described as his “one question mark” concerning the 49-year-old - “the west of Scotland football world where it is absolutely full on, it’s how he deals with that.” A man he acknowledged possessed an “outstanding CV” following his championship success at Genk that allowed him to rack up three straight league wins after switching to Brugges in 2019.

It seems to have escaped Souness that Belgium isn’t some sleepy environment, without the capacity for stirring ferocious passions capable of spilling over. The strongest mentality required to deal with obsessive fandom. Clement, who may be urbane but sports facial scars that attest to his all-in nature as an international centre-back, is able to enlighten him on that score. As he astutely reflects that it is incumbent on him to stay above the fray to avoid distractions for both him and his team.

“I love football. I’ve had more than 30 years in this world and I’ve been at clubs where there is a lot of rivalry,” he said. “In Brugge, we had two teams in the same stadium so that was a special world also. In my life, when I was a Club Brugge player, something happened private-wise towards my children from a rival team. So I know about these situations and I gathered all my information before I came here.

“But my focus is around football. I won’t be busy with the things around it. We have a lot of work to do to make the group better. I want the players to be focused only on football, that’s our job. The media are happy with everything around it to make a lot of stories. But I want the players to concentrate on football because, in the end, it’s about what happens on the green pitch between the white lines. That has to be our focus.”

It could be no other way with games coming thick and fast - the hosting of Hearts on Sunday on the back of Thursday’s Europa League scoreless draw away to Sparta Prague among a block of seven games in little over three weeks. These are being prioritised over finalising the make-up of his backroom staff, with Clement refusing to be rushed over whether Alex Rae and Steven Davis will have roles in his coaching set-up.

“If it wasn’t possible [Alex could stay in the long-term] he wouldn’t be here any more. It’s just like with players. We need to find a really good mix of people. Alex is someone who knows the history of the club really well. That’s an important thing for me, to have people on the staff who know the club and the people within it. [Alex and Steven] are still on an interim basis, they know that. The situation is not clear yet and we will see in the next couple of weeks how it evolves. But it's an interesting period for them too because it's stepping into a new story. There is a lot of motivation in all of the staff to do that and we will see what decisions are made. It's too early to make them just now.”