Rangers manager Philippe Clement was in a good mood as he spoke to a press conference following the League Cup Final win over Aberdeen.
Ibrox captain James Tavernier ended a 13 year hoodoo when he scored the only goal of the game at Hampden as Rangers finally secured the League Cup trophy.
It’s a crucial victory in the story of Rangers’ resurgence and in the tenure of Philippe Clement, who has transformed the squad over the space of the last nine weeks.
Here’s everything the Rangers manager had to say following the Hampden victory, a match the Belgian certainly appeared delighted to have won.
Philippe Clement press conference after ViaPlay Cup Final win
“Excited of course, really happy, proud also. If I see the path the team has taken the past nine weeks, everybody sees a team who is growing. Also it’s not easy after a historical win in Thursday in an away game in Seville, with the travelling and everything, to have the same focus that they had today, so that was a main thing for me also. And they did a brilliant job today. Aberdeen is a really hard team to beat. It’s a team who is really structured, they love to defend and play very direct. So we took out also really good the transitions and we created really good chances. Unluckily again the goalkeeper had a really big day today for the opponent but in the end we deserved this victory very clearly I think.”
It’s been a big week for Rangers what can this do for the confidence of the players going forward?
“Of course it gives a really positive confidence but in football it’s about confirmation. You can have a lot of confidence and you start to run next to your shoes and you come in trouble. So it’s my job to keep everybody with the feet on the ground but this evening they can enjoy and tomorrow I will be the strict one again.”
How pleased are you for James Tavernier?
Very pleased. Not only for him, but for everybody. Tav has shown really good quality the last couple of weeks. He’s been one of the leaders in the group to push, to perform, to be important, to take responsibility in every moment. He’s never been hiding when we wanted to play, he’s been important with assists and goals so we need to continue that story next couple of months.”
Philippe you’ve constantly said since you’ve come in that you want to create winners, that’s the identity that you want here. Obviously that’s what you’ve done today. Do you feel that you could’ve broken that barrier now? The team have the mentality of winning and can go on from strength to strength from here?
“I believe in that. I think if you feel this it creates a certain hunger for more. That’s my mentality and that’s always how I have been. And I see this more and more in the dressing room. It doesn’t mean we’re going to win all the games all season, that’s not realistic but we need to push to win all the games all season and to try to get that. And if you have this mentality with the way we want to play football, with the way everything is analysed, with the quality we have we can do really good things.”
You talk about the hunger, do you feel that this trophy, this silverware can drive your team on in the league, in Europe, in the Scottish Cup when it comes around in January?
“It can but it also stays the danger from Thursday. Football it’s always confirmation. If you have satisfaction one moment and you are happy with how the things are, you go down. So that’s what I want to see in the next weeks, the next months; this hunger, this desire to be better, to have more, to work hard, to be in the team, to be competitive. And also this team mentality that’s in the dressing room now. I didn’t see this week one player who was disappointed that he didn’t start. Everybody was supporting the team, everybody was ready also when they came in. If the players keep that mentality until the end of the season, you always have a great season. I am going to push really hard towards that and if there are players with other ideas, they put themselves out if the story.”
Philippe, see when you came in taking charge in October. What was your priority with this group of players and what has taken for you to get them to here in this short space of time?
“That’s a difficult one to say what was the priority because it was a lot of things at the same time. It was to make them more brave on the ball. To give them also a clear structure how to play with and without the ball. It was about creating a synergy again with the fans. It was about giving them confidence in themselves but also in each other and also get a better connection between players on the pitch and off the pitch. It was getting a better condition, it was about getting players back, it’s been a lot of things, but that’s why this job is also so nice, you have a lot of things to do.”
Philippe, you’ve been here 65 days and in that time you’ve won a European group, won the cup today and do well in the league. You told the fans you don’t have a magic wand but there’s a suggestion maybe the fans don’t believe you.
“No, no, it’s not about me, it’s about the players. They’ve done it. I didn’t kick one ball, I didn’t do one sprint or one tackle. So it’s been the players who done it and we’ve done it together with a lot of people. Also it’s the players, the staff, it’s not only me. I’m the one who speaks a lot towards you guys but there are a lot of people in that dressing room pushing that story, working hard with the players, doing all the right things with them. I am more the guy who needs to have a helicopter view that everything is going well in the way it should be and that’s going to be my role the next couple of months also.”
Do you have a message for the fans tonight?
“Keep this happiness that they see also that the players really want. I know the synergy was a bit gone not so long time ago. I hope this gives also some credit for the difficult moments that will come in the season and in these moments that the fans stick behind the players because I can promise one thing, it will always be players on the pitch who’ve been working hard during the week. That promise I can make. And if they push the team through the difficult moments we can do extra things than in a normal situation.”
Philippe, you’ve obviously got the first trophy of the season. How much do you feel the door has been opened in recent weeks in terms of trying to get the Premiership trophy now?
“It’s a different story. This week was about two sprints. Seville was a sprint, all or nothing for Europa League, but we still had the Conference League, so we knew we would’ve had something. This was really a sprint, all or nothing, so the players managed to do that really well. The Championship is a marathon. It’s a long period. It’s another kind of sport. We need to focus on one thing in this marathon and it’s on our own pace, to be focused on ourselves, not about people in front of us or behind us. It doesn’t matter, it’s about us. And getting that rhythm, that pace, that hopefully at the end, nobody can follow us any more. That’s the only thing we can have control on and we’re going to focus on that. And then you can ask these questions two or three games before the end then you maybe can start to count but for the moment it’s much too early.”
Just finally from me; are you surprised you’ve been able to take the team to where they are in this short space of time?
“That’s a difficult question because I don’t have expectations about that. I work from day to day, from week to week, and it’s about making the players ready in every sense to play good games, to make them better technically, tactically making them better, physically making them better and mentally making them better. But how fast they respond, I can never know this. I cannot know also now how it will be next week, how they will respond after two times success. It’s about them showing this to me that they want to be on the pitch. If they don’t show quality the next couple of weeks I need to take the ones who show the quality, so it works like that. So I don’t have expectations in that way but I know what to do to win games. I know what to do to make things really clear for a team. That’s what happened in the past also and that’s what we’re going to do here also.”
