Clement 'had bad feeling after League Cup final'

"I had a feeling, a bad feeling, after the League Cup final."

The passing of four months has afforded Philippe Clement time to reflect on his turbulent 16-month reign as Rangers manager.

Distance from Glasgow, and the febrile environment in which he became engulfed, has allowed him to pinpoint one particular game that he believes marked the beginning of the end of his time in charge at Ibrox.

Mid-December 2024. Pressure is building. Rangers are nine points behind Celtic. Only a series of good Europa League results are keeping the dogs at bay.

Just three days before the season's first domestic silverware is awarded, Clement's side earn another of those in a creditable 1-1 draw with Tottenham Hotspur.

Then to Hampden, with Celtic heavy favourites to wrest back the League Cup.

Rangers, however, go toe-to-toe with them and are denied a spot-kick before losing on penalties following a 3-3 draw.

"I think it was a vital game," Clement tells BBC Sport Scotland.

"If we had won, there would have been more patience with the fans also and the board could have stayed much calmer."

But Rangers did not and Clement endured a winter of highs and lows before being relieved of his duties following an abject defeat by St Mirren at Ibrox in February.

In the week that Russell Martin was appointed his full-time successor, the Belgian talks to BBC Sport Scotland about cutting costs, recruitment, mentality and the players he left behind.

'It's pity board didn't have patience'

Every manager wants patience - and few get it. But Clement arguably got more than predecessors Michael Beale and Giovanni van Bronckhorst.

After all, neither of them suffered the ignominy of a Scottish Cup home defeat by second-tier Queen's Park.

Protesting that his squad needed time to develop and grow became a regular refrain of Clement's and the passing of time has not changed his view on that.

"It's a pity that the story stopped, that the board didn't have the patience, or maybe listened too much to some fans," he says.

"There are other clubs where there is a difficult moment and everybody sticks together because everybody knows the story, how the work is done inside the building, and they continue and they are successful afterwards.

"In three or four windows, we could have closed the gap [to Celtic] with a good development of players, but the decision is made and you need to accept it."

As Rangers tried to assuage swingeing losses, Clement's task was to usurp Celtic but with a diminishing budget.

Was he initially misled about what funds might be available to him?

"No, not misled, but I understand now why," he says. "Because some people were already thinking about selling the club and selling their stocks.

"I think you need to go back to one year ago. The story was that the club was not financially sustainable anymore, so that was the story of the transfer window."

Clement says he and the recruitment team were told they could spend whatever money the club were able to recoup in player sales and from cutting salary spend.

But, despite taking "more than 35%" from the wage bill, an ageing squad, contracts expiring, and a lack of attractive young talent, meant the yield proved meagre.

"You gain money by bringing young players in, making them better and selling them," Clement says. "That was the idea. There was not another road to take.

"In the end, it's about deciding if the idea we had was working. You need patience to build it or you need to spend money. It's one of the two.

"Without one of the two, it's an impossible job."

'Squad was not ready to be consistent'

It had all started so well.

Rangers were seven points behind Celtic when Michael Beale lost his job at the end of September 2023.

But from Clement taking over until the end of February, their only league loss came at Celtic Park. That run ended with the Ibrox side two clear at the top.

Things began to go awry soon after, though. A home defeat by Motherwell. A first-ever loss to Ross County. Then a draw at Dundee.

Celtic never looked back after that as Rangers' mentality and inability to break teams down began to be questioned.

"I don't agree with that," Clement says of the latter criticism. "In moments, it was really good, but in moments not.

"It's more a story about consistency, about having the demand - physically and mentally - to be ready for that every three days.

"In the end, the squad was not ready. There were too many players who had never done this before."

Clement also bridles at suggestion mentality was an issue.

Mentioning the slip-ups against County and Dundee, he points out that "two players who were not good in those games" left at the end of the season and were perhaps distracted by discussions with other clubs at the time.

"It was never about not wanting to win, not wanting to work," he adds. "For sure, they wanted to become champions and they wanted to give everything."

'Four or five players could be sold'

Rangers were unable to mount a similar challenge this season, with Clement leaving them 13 points adrift in the Premiership and out of the Scottish Cup.

Interim head coach Barry Ferguson did take the Ibrox side a round further in the Europa League, but they ended the season without a trophy.

Regardless, Clement believes Rangers are now better placed to succeed because of the signings made during his tenure and the development of those players.

"Nicolas Raskin made a really good evolution," he says. "A lot of clubs are interested in him. But you also have Jefte, Hamza Igamane, Clinton Nsiala, who will have a better value. Mohamed Diomande is also one of those guys.

"The club has worked well the past year in that way. There are now four or five players with the value to sell and several teams would pay good amounts of money.

"The club needs to build with that, or the new owners have to say 'we don't do it that way now because we have enough money'."

Rangers fans - have your say

What do you make of Clement's comments, Rangers fans?

Was the League Cup final decisive? Should the board have shown more patience? Do the club have four or five sellable assets?

Let us know here