Philippe Clement makes big claim about Rangers and 56

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Ibrox Noise

·11. September 2024

Philippe Clement makes big claim about Rangers and 56

There’s been quite a few tongues wagging over Rangers manager Philippe Clement’s claim that Rangers can win the title, with of course it abundantly clear that this Rangers squad is quite some distance behind Celtic both on the pitch and off.

To offer the quote he mentioned on this:

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“Yeah, I’m convinced about that (we can mount a challenge) or I wouldn’t be here. Of course it’s a big rebuild. 16 players left. It was not also easy to have a good transfer window because seven players left for zero and had to be replaced by players that cost money. We had to cut the wages also because it was not sustainable the way the wages were built the last couple of years in the squad.”

Now, what isn’t clear here is context. Was Clement saying we can mount a challenge this season? Because it’s not exactly convincing and might just be the Belgian’s ‘dog barking caravan’ (that one was unfair, it was actually a Portuguese proverb that doesn’t translate to English too well) moment if that’s what he’s saying.

However, he may be meaning it in general, that he believes he can build a title-winning Rangers, be it this season or next.

That, interestingly, is not impossible, because Clement has experience of building title-winners from scratch. When he took over at Genk, he signed around 13 players the following season (similar budget, slightly more than at Rangers), and hey presto, he secured that season’s title.

So Clement has previous for doing this, but this was at low-expectation Genk, as opposed to must-win Rangers.

After 5 matches in Belgium that season, he was joint top with Brugge, but never looked back after that and won the title via the Belgian playoff tournament split.

This time round Clement is struggling, and very badly, with just 7 points of a possible 12 after 4 matches and a team lying fourth. It’s a different ball game.

So yes, he has past experience of building title-winning teams with modest budget, but he doesn’t have the experience of the expectation of Rangers. And believe us, Brugge, while a big club with whom he won two titles, just don’t have the same pressure.

So it’s a toss-up. He’s done this before, but not in this situation. And the pressure of struggling is clearly getting to him.

So does he think he can win the title this season? All we can go on is his answer, that he believes we can mount a challenge.

That is a very tall order given the start his team have made this season.