PHILIPPE Clement today revealed how emotional the decision to stand down as Rangers chairman had been for John Bennett after his side had beaten Dundee United at Tannadice.
The Ibrox club announced yesterday that Bennett, who has been replaced on a temporary basis by former director John Gilligan, had been advised to step away from the role “for personal reasons”.
Clement, whose team won their William Hill Premiership match on Tayside 1-0 this afternoon thanks to a seventh minute Tom Lawrence goal, was sad when he learned the news earlier this week.
“Yeah, that's not something that you want, of course,” he said. “So I heard from John as probably one of the first to hear about that during the week. He explained everything to me.
“It's not his decision, it’s a doctor's decision. So it's with a lot of pain in the heart that he had to make the decision. And I wish him all the best to recover as fast as possible. But he will not be away. He will be there at a distance, but he needs to keep a little bit of distance now to recover first.”
However, the Belgian manager, whose team moved back to within five points of early pacesetters Aberdeen and Celtic in the league with their victory this afternoon, is confident not having a permanent chairman, chief executive, director of football at Rangers will impact on him going forward.
“I think until now I've been the only one talking outside,” said Clement. “So that doesn't change too much. Maybe it will change next week. We will see.
“I'm not the guy who brings in the cash or the money into the club. My job is to get the best out of the players who are who are in the building and to look for new ones together with the recruitment team and to make the right decisions with the budget we have.
“That's my job to do and I will continue in that way. But I had also a lot of talks before with James [former chief executive Bisgove] and with John about strategic things for the future of the club and to make things better in the club in everything, but also in Scottish football. So I think it will continue with the new people who step in.”
Asked if he had felt increased pressure since the Celtic defeat at Parkhead at the start of the month, he said: “No, no, no pressure. There's nobody putting more pressure on myself than me.
“I want to win every game. I'm disappointed. I told you guys also. I hate to lose. So I hated that and I wanted the reaction of the team.
“But it's my job also to keep everything calm at the right moments also. Unfortunately, in the past, I could go on the pitch and then change things.
“That's not the case anymore. But I believe really hard in the potential of this squad. It's not the easiest thing with the situation that it was with seven players going out of the building for zero pounds, replacing them and then to add strength to the squad. It's a very difficult thing to do.
“But everybody in the club did the maximum to do it in the best way in this window and we will continue in the next window to improve things. It's good now that people finally can see also the potential of some players, the way that Hamza [Igamane] came in.
“I understand that people from outside say, ‘Why do they take a guy out of Morocco who never played in Scotland or at the highest level?’. I understand.
“But I think people saw already some things today and it can only improve because they're all young boys. Same with Jefte. He's only 20. People forget that maybe.
“So, we have a lot of young potentials and it's now with all the staff together and with the players to work really hard to improve that week by week, month by month. And then we're going to grow and become stronger and stronger. That's logic for me.”
Meanwhile, Clement confirmed that Oscar Cortes had only been taken off at half-time against United because he did not want to ask too much of the Colombian winger after such a lengthy injury layoff.
“It's just building him up step by step,” he said. “So, that was the plan before the game already. I stick to the plans also to keep the squad as fit as possible. It's normal after an injury like that and a long time out that he could do this kind of minutes.
“It was important for him now also to start the game before he was coming in. It's different to start the game. So, that was the next step in his rehab.”
