The hidden John Gilligan benefit for Rangers as new chairman solves one Philippe Clement problem

-Credit: (Image: SNS Group)
-Credit: (Image: SNS Group)


Philippe Clement reckons he’s busier than ever having to get to grips with Rangers’ raft of Europa League opponents, writes Andy Newport from Malmo.

But he’s mightily relieved that at least he no longer has the role of explaining the behind-the-scenes shenanigans on his plate with John Gilligan now running the show at Ibrox. Clement has been forced to act as club spokesman in recent weeks as all manner of things have gone wrong amid a shambolic summer.

From a stuttering transfer window to the Copland stand cock-up and even run-ins with fans, it was the big Belgian who was sent out to try and clear up just what was going on to scunnered supporters. But new interim chairman Gilligan has vowed to step up and take that burden off his boss, starting this week with a press conference designed in part to dispel Dave King’s assertion that Gers are a club in crisis.

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That’s come as a huge relief to Clement, who has enough on his hands tonight making sure Rangers end a dismal Malmo record that stands at played four, won none. Speaking ahead of Gers opening fixture in the new-look competition - which will see them play eight different teams between now and January - he said: “It’s an interesting thing now as a staff with this new formula in the Europa League.

“Before you had a group stage with four teams, so you have three opponents, so you analyse them three times and then you have your game that you can analyse to show the players for the next game. Now it will be eight times, analysing a totally different team. So it's a lot more work to do, but it's also more challenging, and I think it's interesting for everyone.

“Of course, as a manager you want to talk about football and about the things you are doing. And we had too many talks in the last couple of months about non-football things, where I didn't have any single influence or any single say. So I hope we can stop this spirit also, and nobody needs to talk about those things anymore in the future and that we can focus on football, because that's the most important thing for the club.”

Gers have fought their way out through to the Europa League knockout rounds in each of their four group-stage visits - including their famous run to the 2022 final. Clement was in charge last year when they returned to Seville to stun Real Betis and qualify for the last 16, where they narrowly fell to Portuguese giants Benfica.

Ahead of his first look at the new format, Clement - whose team also face Lyon, Steaua Bucharest, Olympiakos, Nice, Spurs, Man United and Union Saint-Gilloise - said: “It's going to be interesting to see [how the new format works]. I think with the draw we didn't get any presents, that's really clear if you compare with other groups.

“So we have a really, really tough group to qualify out of, so that's a little bit the strange thing also about that, you have teams in your group who play against other teams than you are playing against, so in that way it's a little bit of a weird situation. But we're going to just focus on ourselves, game by game, going full to take the three points, and then see what this format brings.

“I think we were really close against Benfica, and we had a really good Europa League season last year with the qualities we had as a group. If you compare the qualities that Benfica had, we were really close. We finished first in our group in the Europa League, so you cannot do better than that.

“It will be a challenge to do better, but we are ambitious, we always want to do better than we did before. Every month we want to do better, and that's the exciting thing about the project now. We have a new squad, we have a lot of new young guys coming in, having the first taste for some in European football, or some like Connor Barron, who's also still young, he had already a taste last season.

“But he felt also our difficulties to combine it with domestic football, and winning the points every three day. It's interesting for us to see how fast they adapt to that, to that every three-day performance, every three days to be on your toes and to play big games. And this is now the start of that period to come.”

Progressing in the competition could be key to Clement’s hopes of bringing in further new faces after adding nine this summer. But he was glad to hear Gilligan confirm this week there will be funds to spend in January.

“It’s important and it's necessary,” he said. “It was not easy in the summer, we talked about that, maybe the people in the club will talk about that later on, in the next couple of months also, about that situation.

Rangers interim chairman John Gilligan
Rangers interim chairman John Gilligan

“Of course, as a manager you hope to get more funds in to do the right thing for the club, but with the resources that were there, I think everybody is starting to see that a lot of good things have been made. And it's now interesting to work with that and to focus on that.

“And then, of course, to plan towards January, what we are doing already, and to plan towards next summer. We're also busy with that, but that's our job and with recruitment to do. It's important to have also money to do the right things for the club.”