Rangers were a shambles when Philippe Clement arrived to sort out the mess left behind by Michael Beale.
Confidence was low, performances were poor, there was no structure, fitness was an issue and standards were miles from being acceptable.
All of which have been addressed by the new Rangers manager as Philippe Clement looks to drive the sort of standards needed to be serial winners.
Rangers standards soar under Philippe Clement
It can’t all come from the manager.
Which makes it reassuring to hear Tom Lawrence say that the squad is now the driving force on a daily basis, making sure that everyone is on their toes:
“If you watch us in the training pitch every day, we all demand our own standards no matter who it is. Whether it’s your first day training with us or you’ve been here for two or three years, you’ve got to demand those standards.
“You can’t drop your standards because everyone will pick up on it. So everyone has to be at the top of their game in every training session. Look, it works when you’re doing that. It gets taken into a game. It works for getting results.”
The message from the squad has been that Philippe Clement has kept things simple in turning Rangers around.
He knows that he can’t do much about the players he has at his disposal but that he can make them better players, and that starts on the training ground.
If he wants a team of winners, then everyone has to buy into the ethos of hard work and pushing each other higher and further than they have been in the past.
You can see the change.
Even in our worst performance under Clement over the last few months there is a clear purpose, an identity and an intensity that was previously missing.
We are seeing 90 minute performances, although we are still squandering a few too many chances, but when substitutes come off the bench there is no dip in pace or effort.
Nothing – apart from the league cup – has been won yet, with standards high though, we are on the right tracks.
