Philippe Clement ‘not busy’ with personal glory ahead of Hearts semi-final

Rangers manager Philippe Clement played down the significance of an early trophy win for himself as he prepares for the Viaplay Cup semi-final against Hearts on Sunday.

The Belgian is unbeaten in four games since taking over as Gers boss from Michael Beale last month and in general the early signs have been encouraging for Light Blues fans, who watched their side thrash Dundee 5-0 away in the cinch Premiership on Wednesday night.

A victory over the Jambos at Hampden Park would set up a Viaplay Cup final meeting in December against either Aberdeen or Hibernian, with the chance of winning the first available silverware of the season.

Philippe Clement said the squad are focusing on the task at hand as we prepare for #ViaplayCup Semi-Final action against Hearts.

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— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) November 3, 2023

However, the former Genk, Club Brugge and Monaco manager insists he is not preoccupied with personal glory.

Clement said: “No, honestly I am totally not busy with that.

“I do this job because I love to do things with people together. I love to make players better, to guide them and to put my passion as a player into other people, because my body can’t do that on the pitch anymore.

“I’m not busy with my career and where I want to go. I have won trophies in my career, but the satisfaction is having this with the players and staff.

“I love the joy football can give people, like in Dundee after the final whistle you see all these people so happy.

“That is why I love to be a manager, with my players, staff and supporters. It’s about that, not my personal thing.”

Clement stressed the importance of football courage throughout his squad as he looked for further improvement on the back of a convincing win on Tayside.

He said: “I want my players to be ambitious, the medals will come if you do the correct things.

“We need to be brave and not be afraid to make mistakes – it is important how you react afterwards and that is what I want to give to my players.

“As a coach, you need to invest in your players and see the qualities they have and build on this.

“You need to see potential and give them the tools to develop themselves.

“I want my players to be ambitious to become better. It’s not like it was a perfect performance (in Dundee).

“We can do things better than this performance. But you see they’re starting to understand the story we want to do so it becomes more fluid.

“Also, more players stepping in and getting experience in how to move together, what to do with and without the ball. We need to strengthen the team and let them grow like this.”