Philippe Clement rejects Scott Brown enemy theory as Rangers boss reveals underdog story driving Scottish Cup dream
When he gave birth to “The Broony” on a tumultuous Scottish Cup afternoon at Ibrox thirteen years ago this week, Scott Brown became the most public nemesis of Rangers supporters. The former Celtic captain will make his managerial debut tonight in the same competition round at the same location.
In the grand scheme of coincidences, Brown’s first boss return to enemy land coincides with a fairly unusual twist of fate. Therefore, Philippe Clement is keen to make sure his Rangers teammates make the most unfortunate of celebrations if the 13th anniversary is to hold any significance.
It is not the intention to witness the Ayr United gaffer prance around with his arms raised. The Belgian, who has no desire to get sucked into sideshows, demands that anyone wearing light blue should be the only ones making triumphal gestures.The Ibrox faithful may find it hard not to poke fun at their rival, who made the jest last week that he “has a lot of love for Rangers.” However, Clement has more significant goals in mind as he attempts to win the Scottish Cup fifth round and maintain his hopes of winning the Treble.He said, “I read that he loves Rangers,” when it was suggested that the man in the opposing dug out could make the tie particularly hot.
“I am acquainted with him; he was an excellent player. Still, I’m not preoccupied with public foes or anything of the sort. We are focused on our team, the match, playing excellent football, coming out on top, and qualifying. The most crucial thing to remember is that each player in this round has four games remaining to win the trophy. It’s not that far. Because it has nothing to do with us, we must concentrate on that and not everything else going on around us.
As usual, Clement is totally focused. Not that he needed it, but the French Cup collapse of his old team Monaco against lower division teams that evening division FC Rouen on Thursday night gave him and his men a timely lesson that they cannot take their opponents in the Championship lightly this evening. The boss of Ibrox is also familiar with the freedom that Ayr will have at Ibrox this evening and with what it’s like to be a giantkiller. His first professional victory came in 1998 with the underdog Genk team, who advanced to the Belgian Cup final and stunned his native country by defeating Club Brugge 4-0. “I was definitely involved with a shock with a smaller team,” Clement stated. My first trophy was from a match between Genk and Club.
“We won promotion the year we went there, and we finished eighth the following year when we played in the second division.” In the Intertoto Cup, we qualified for Europe, which surprised everyone because they all thought we would be demoted straight away.
“After only two years in the second division, we won the Belgian Cup the following season after finishing second and defeating Brugge in the final. Everyone anticipated Brugge to win the championship as well, as they had easily won the league at the end of that season. However, we prevailed 4-0.
“I recall the minor but significant particulars. There was a team photo taken prior to the game. Brugge had just eleven players in his squad. However, we snapped a picture with roughly 20 players.
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