A side driven by ambitiospon has been established by Philippe Clement. That is why, in his quest to place more silverware on the table at Ibrox, he will never select items from a medal menu. Some Rangers fans believe that the matches against Benfica are only a side dish that could overshadow the main event. For Clement, that is not the case. A busy schedule of domestic play coincides with a matchup with the Portuguese powerhouses, but the Belgian accepted that when he took Michael Beale’s place. In other words, leave the kitchen if you are unable to tolerate the heat. Since October, Clement has been cooking up a storm. A couple of months after his employment, Aberdeen’s victory over Real Betis guaranteed a berth in this round of the competition. This was followed by Aberdeen’s defeat at Hampden, which brought him his first trophy. With just nine games left in the Premiership this season, Clement has transformed Rangers from hapless underdogs to possible champions in the weeks that have passed.
The task of competing at home and abroad is one which can stretch even the most star-studded and expensively assembled squads in the game, never mind a group that is once again without a handful of its most established operators. Clement finds solutions rather than excuses, though. Time will tell if he has the recipe for success. No,” Clement said when asked if the Benfica fixtures were a distraction that he could do without. “And I said it in December. There were some people of the board who told me before our European game that it was maybe more important that we won the League Cup. I told them I never go that way because I want players who are hungry for every occasion and want to win every occasion.“It doesn’t work that way. It is not like a menu in a restaurant that you pick out and now we are going to perform there or there. Like this, you don’t create a winning culture. OK it is a busy schedule, that is true, but it is about us working really hard with all the players, all the staff to get the players ready and for the players also to show that they are ready for that kind of competition. We are going to full for this game, going to go full at the weekend and go full again on Thursday. We will go like that until the end of the season.“No [the comment didn’t surprise me] because it was really with good intentions. The hunger to win a trophy again was so big in the club that everybody put emphasis on that. But afterwards, after our night in Spain, they were also really happy. And after winning the League Cup they were even more happy that they had both. I think everybody understands that we want to get the best out of everything and that we are going to work hard for that.”That claim may have come out of the blue, but it was made with the heart as well as the head. Clement knows as well as anyone at Ibrox that he will be judged on what he wins and that is how legacies are formed at a club where medals and trophies are the only barometer of success. Those December days against Betis and Aberdeen helped set the tone for what has come sinceS test yet in Lisbon. He has previously described Rangers as the underdogs in this fight and insisted that it is the first time in his reign where the odds have been so heavily stacked against him.Those supporters who have made the trip to the Portuguese capital would surely be satisfied with a share of the spoils. Some may even take a narrow defeat. The Ibrox injury crisis may force Clement to alter his approach but the mindset will never change for the Belgian.
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