The new Rangers boss has told fans he’s a ‘football animal’ but insists he fielded other concrete options in Europe and beyond before making the call.
Philippe Clement says he had concrete options on the table but Rangers was the one for him after chats with Graeme Souness and the Ibrox board.
The 49-year-old Belgian coach became the club’s 19th permanent manager on Sunday and told fans he will bring the ‘football animal’ approach to his Rangers side when he attempts to revive their Scottish Premiership campaign and continue the charge for silverware. Clement took training for the first time on Monday, with the former Monaco coach desperate to get a tune out of players he reckons haven’t reached their full potential yet.
And while the new Ibrox boss is assembling his backroom team, in which he’s looking to add experience of the Scottish game, he believes as he told Sky Sports: “Last couple of weeks, months I spoke with several clubs in Europe and outside of Europe. This felt like the best project and the thing I was looking for, a club with a lot of passion, a real club with a lot of fans. The people I met were very passionate about it.
“It’s true Graeme (Souness) was there in the first talks to go in-depth about football, the details of the team and the fans. What people expect, later on there were several other people involved. I gathered enough information to make a good decision.
“If you make major changes directly, you make people more nervous than they are already. We have to take it step-by-step, to implement all my philosophy of football in five days is impossible. Not here, also not in my other clubs before.
“I’m confident about that (being given time). I’ve seen serious people who know they want to find the right manager, talking with a lot of coaches to make the right choice. They know what’s coming in to the building, we were really clear about that on both sides. It’s now time to focus on the team and a very important thing, to make the synergy between the team and the fans better again.”
On an offer from Saudi, he added: “There were several concrete options that were financially better, but that’s not the important thing for me. I want a really good project, and to build something together.”
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