Philippe Clement declares Champions League is NOT just about Rangers cash as ‘tradition’ reasoning laid bare

Philippe Clement insists Rangers’ Champions League bid is as much about prestige as pound notes.

The Ibrox boss doesn’t shy away from the huge importance of the potential group-stage jackpot in terms of his future rebuilding plans. But, as he says himself, he’s not an accountant. Whilst fully aware of the significance of pouring almost £40 million into the coffers, Clement’s a football man. With that in mind, the Champions League symbolises the elite.

Cut-throat and ruthless as it may be, it’s the craved destination for those on the park as well as in the boardroom. Clement doesn’t hide the fact as he said: “As a player as a manager it is about competing with the best. That is why I always like to be in the Champions League, as a player or a manager, it is the nicest place to be. It is also the most challenging place for your players because they can compete against the best and all the spotlight of the world is on them. So that is the main thing. As a club you need to look at both.

“You need to look at the exposure and the tradition and want to be there, but finance is really important in football and I think this club knows this really well after what happened 12 years ago. So is it is a really important thing to keep a good balance in those things and not make silly fouls that you come into trouble.

“The club is very conscious about that, I know that and together we want to create a really good story, a strong story for the future. But it is not a story you can write in three or four weeks so we are working hard on that. The Champions League can help to make the story go faster.”

Of course, every penny counts. There’s almost £4 million on offer for defeating Dynamo Kyiv and moving into the Play-off Round.

But, asked what effect that would have on his budget, Clement reasoned: “Not so much I think. I don’t think it will be a big difference.

“But I said last time also that I’m not an accountant here at the club. I am not the one who says: Okay we spend £200,000 here and we get £100,000 there.

“We had really clear talks and a clear plan before we entered the transfer window. Other people decide where to spend the money.

“Of course I give my priorities, but I focus on the team, the staff and making everything really good here with the players available. We will see if other names come up that we will get with qualities and make choices that way.”

Group-stage qualification is a different story and he continued: “It is not about being on schedule, I think it can make things happen faster. Going to the Champions League is not budgeted and that is the best way because some teams have done that in the past and they had really big financial problems out of that. We can’t do that, clearly.

“Of course if you can go to the Champions League it will give you another budget, although it is only in the last hours of the transfer market, it will be an important thing, for sure, for the future windows.

“We will do everything to succeed, but you look at the teams all playing for that, there are a lot in there with a bigger budget than ours. That is the reality. We are going to go really hard to qualify, but let’s first focus on the Kyiv game first because we need to win that one first.”

With that mind, Rangers have carved a strong position. Cyriel Dessers’ late leveller in Lublin earned the 1-1 draw which gives Clement’s team a big opportunity at Hampden.

Clement said: “I don’t think you have command of the tie, I think it’s two teams at the same level. They have the advantage of having played longer together, but our team did really well against Kyiv tactically.

“It’s not easy with new players and with players coming back from injury to be that good in that game. I was really pleased. Scoring in the last minute was deserved.

“Yes we will do some different things. Things we saw we will put more focus on. I don’t know what they’re going to do, maybe they are going to sit more and hit on the counter attacks or transitions.

“I don’t know, but we need to be prepared for different scenarios. It’s a really good footballing team, like they showed against Partizan.

“I think we took a lot of that out by being compact and good pressing as a team. But they are also really dangerous on set pieces for sure and also really good in transitions, so it’s a team with a lot of experienced guys and young talents.”