Philippe Clement drops Rangers transfer clue as boss names what he is looking for from winter recruits.
The Ibrox boss has only added Fabio Silva from Wolves on loan so far but he is working hard for further reinforcements.
Philippe Clement insists Rangers are working flat out to bring in fresh recruits, writes Andy Newport in La Manga.
The Ibrox manager signed Fabio Silva on loan from Wolves this month, although he has only brought in one new player thus far. The large Belgian has been connected to a number of other players, but he hasn’t been successful in closing any more transactions. There have been rumours of discontent among the Ibrox supporters, who are anxious to see their club prepare for an important second half of the season.
However, Clement is well aware that if the Rangers are to build on a positive start to his term, he’ll want some quality reinforcements. And he emphasized that no effort is being spared as he leads the search for additions alongside chief executive James Bisgrove and recruitment manager Nils Koppen.
“Everyone is working really hard for that, to find the right players who can add something extra to the squad,” stated the Gers’ manager. Though everyone in the club is working really hard to bring players here, January is typically a challenging month in that regard. As everyone is expecting and working hard, so am I. I’m not sure how much it would cost because I know from experience that you can never have it all.
“Maybe the clubs with all the money in the world, they can do that, but not clubs like Rangers. We are going to make it as good as possible in this period but it’s much easier in the summer.”
Clement was speaking after being bizarrely sent-off during Saturday’s bounce-game clash with Hertha Berlin in La Manga. He got his marching orders seven minutes after half-time after reacting furiously to a late tackle on Scott Wright.
The 200 Gers fans who followed their team to the Spanish resort assumed he was just in for a talking too, only for the card-happy local ref to leave them stunned as he whipped out a straight red. Clement trudged across the pitch past his equally bemused players before heading back to the Gers dressing room.
But he brushed the incident off afterwards as he said: “I don’t even want to talk about the red card. This is a friendly game and you know that in the southern countries strange things happen. It’s not important.”
Berlin skipper Marc Oliver Kempf’s header on the stroke of half-time won the game but Clement was more interested in seeing his side put in another hard shift after a gruelling week of double sessions. He named two completely different line-ups in each half in a bid to build up the fitness levels of as many players as possible before his team face another friendly clash against Copenhagen at Ibrox on Tuesday night.
In addition, Ridvan Yilmaz was part of the starting lineup for the first half even though there have been persistent speculations that he will soon join Verona of Italy. However, Clement is adamant that he would utilize the Turk as long as he is still a member of his team.
“It’s the same as the situation with the rumours about players coming in,” the speaker stated. Players are here as long as they haven’t signed with another team.
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