Rangers manager Philippe Clement is still catching his breath after a hectic summer transfer window at Ibrox.
Alongside the likes of director of recruitment Nils Koppen, the Belgian boss has overseen one of the biggest summer turnarounds at Ibrox in a generation.
With Rangers opting to bleed a number of young talents in the place of stuttering older pros, it’s been a summer of uncertainty.
The situation with the Ibrox lock-out hasn’t helped.
But on the club’s return to the famous old stadium, Rangers manager Clement has hailed the arrival of one ‘long-term’ target and tipped his hat to the club’s recruitment team.
Rangers tracked Nedim Bajrami for ‘long time’
As the Rangers transfer window wound to a close, it was a hectic final week at Ibrox.
Out went English lower league level stars like Ben Davies, Scott Wright and Todd Cantwell, and in came two more promising talents from the continent.
Dutch defender Neraysho Kasanwirjo joined the Gers on a season-long loan from Feyenoord and made his debut in the 3-0 win over Dundee.
But after the match it was Albanian midfielder Nedim Bajrami who was the subject of discussions from Rangers manager Philippe Clement.
Claiming that Rangers had been tracking Bajrami for some time before pouncing, the £3.6m deadline-defying switch stands as the Ibrox club’s marquee summer signing.
After Bajrami made his full debut for Rangers in the clash at Ibrox, Clement confirmed that it’s a signing the club had been tailing for quite some time.
“Nedim is just a week with us,” Clement told Premier Sports. “Not longer than that.
“With international duty he was gone the first two weeks that he signed his contract.
“But it’s somebody that we’ve been following already a longer time with the recruitment team and it’s somebody who will strengthen the squad.”
Philippe Clement hails Rangers recruitment team
Rangers are beginning to settle after that hectic summer transfer period and it’s starting to tell on the field.
The 3-0 victory over Dundee comes after a hard-fought win over Dundee United at Tannadice and a 6-0 win over Ross County at Hampden.
Whilst the crippling 3-0 defeat to Celtic was sandwiched in between, there are clear shoots of progress as a new-look Rangers team build forward under Philippe Clement.
Touching on what he describes as the ‘logical’ progress being made in Glasgow, Clement has hailed the club’s recruitment team for the job done this summer.
The Rangers manager is glad that finally, weeks on from the window closing, the club’s transfer business is coming into firm focus.
“It’s what I said a few weeks ago,” said Clement. “It’s logic.
“It’s normal. We start the season with 16 players out of the building, 11 new players, and some guys like Nedim who is just here.
“He didn’t play in August for example, those important games, Nano (Kasanwirjo) the same. He’s just in the building.
“So we need time to train with them, to work with them, to let them know how we need to run, how we need to run together, what is the timing, what is the moment, when to play a pass, defensively also, to play in our principles.
“You see this every week better and better but it’s just the start if you see how many new faces are in the building now.
“But they show already quality and I think that’s the important thing also for the fan.
“I know there was a lot of scepticism around that also with the feeling with being at Hampden – totally different feeling from being at Ibrox – and then a lot of young faces come in who never proved at Rangers level the football they need to play, that there are questions about that.
“But I see also and I feel also from the fans that they start to understand that the recruitment team did a really good job with the money that we could spend to get players in for this level at that price.”
