Philippe Clement jumped at the chance to become Rangers manager, turning down other options to enter the manic goldfish bowl that is life in Glasgow.
The towering Belgian probably wishes he was sunning himself in Saudi Arabia now given the latest crisis affecting his transfer plans and the delays to upgrades at Ibrox.
Since taking charge, there is one problem that has affected his ability to prove what he is really capable of with a ramshackle Rangers squad – injuries.
Rangers make moves to fix injury issues that hamstrung Clement
Speaking in December 2023, after just a few months in charge, the manager was already pulling his non-existent hair out:
“I’m a little bit fed up but I need to speak about it. I don’t know, we’ll see the day after and then it’s another game again. We take it day by day what the situation is and what the fitness of the players is.
“It’s difficult to plan in advance so I’m living from day go day.”
Not once did Clement get to pick his first choice XI.
In no games did Oscar Cortes and Abdallah Sima play together or Cortes and Danilo.
Then there was losing Todd Cantwell when he was at his mercurial best and had fired Rangers to the top of the Scottish Premiership table.
Speaking after the 2-1 friendly defeat to Ajax though, Clement is confident – despite having his hands tied in the transfer market – that things, can only get better:
“I am really confident that we can work in stability the next months, the next years, that we can make a lot of things better in the club. We have been busy with that also.
“We have been changing staff in the medical department, in the performance department.
“It is all over the club that everybody is working really hard to make things better. At the end, it will benefit the cause of growing as a club.”
Rangers must fix injury crisis to challenge for the league
There have been no announcements on the changes behind the scenes other than bringing in Andries Ulderink as assistant manager, who won’t have a great impact on the goings on in the treatment room.
Tom Taylor arrived as head of performance in the winter and how effective his first pre-season has been won’t truly be known until the end of the season.
It has to improve though.
Only having one striker fit or playing full-backs on the wing isn’t good enough for a club of Rangers size.
If injuries can be kept to a minimum, Clement could be in good shape, after all, he got Rangers to the top of the league with a squad that was hanging by a thread – imagine what he could do with one that is fully fit.
