Kenny Miller has singled out the incredible influence Philippe Clement has had on one Rangers defender since the Belgian’s arrival.
Leon Balogun has been in fine form for the Ibrox boss in recent weeks, marking a significant shift in his fortunes from his time under Michael Beale. The 35-year-old German-born Nigerian made an unlikely return to Glasgow in the summer after spending a year away.
He was surprisingly released in the summer of 2022 but Beale offered him a route back to Rangers. However, Balogun seemed to be brought in purely as back-up to Connor Goldson, John Souttar and Ben Davies.
That’s because the defender played just 90 minutes of Premiership action under Beale from a possible 630 minutes. He was also excluded from the Europa League group stage squad, which has proven to be a sticking point for Clement recently.
Leon Balogun Rangers resurgence highlighted
But Balogun has been central to Clement’s domestic plans, playing the full 90 minutes in each of the last six league encounters – he also contributed massively to the Hearts Viaplay Cup semi-final victory.
And speaking on Clyde 1 Superscoreboard, Kenny Miller was keen to bring this up. Miller was joined by Simon Donnelly in the studio, who initially praised Clement for getting the absolute best out of John Lundstram, who was magnificent vs Real Betis.
The conversation then turned to Balogun, with Miller saying: “Simon’s right, he deserves a lot of credit. It’s not only Lundstram, I even look at Leon Balogun who couldn’t get anywhere near the team under the manager who signed him. The new manager comes in, plays him, and it looks like he’s the number one.”
Miller is bang on here. Rangers fans were delighted Balogun made a return to the club in the summer but were been disappointed to see him sat on the bench for most weeks, as well as being puzzled regarding his Europa League squad exclusion.
That is certainly something Clement will look to address for the knockout rounds of the tournament as he clearly trusts Balogun’s defensive capabilities.
Clement is working wonders at Rangers from a player development point of view. Even the likes of Cyriel Dessers, who Rangers had totally written off at one point, has turned a corner at Ibrox.
It just underlines how poor Beale was at maximising the potential the players at his disposal had, including Balogun.
