Rangers’ Philippe Clement dismisses question about Celtic

It is safe to say that the Rangers are enjoying a new manager bounce at the moment, as Michael Beale was replaced by Philippe Clement not too long ago. They have won three and drawn one of their four games under his management. That is a pretty good run of form without a doubt and has allowed them to cut down Celtic’s lead at the top to five points.

Of course, the new manager bounce will come as a surprise to Celtic. That was the case under the management of Giovanni van Bronckhorst and Beale as well.

It did not lead to long-term success for either of those managers. Celtic just need to make sure that they at least match the Rangers every step of the way if not surpass them.

At the same time though, they cannot take Clement lightly. He has more pedigree than any of the Rangers’ recent managers. The Hoops cannot make the same mistake that the Ibrox club did when Ange Postecoglou arrived.

Rangers manager dismisses question about Celtic

Clement has somewhat of an easy run to what could be his first piece of silverware in Scottish football. With Celtic already out of the League Cup, the Rangers will be taking on Hearts in the semi-final.

But Clement feels that Celtic’s absence does not add any further pressure on his team. As reported by Glasgow Times, he said to the media:

"“Those are all really good things for you guys because you can make a lot of stories about that.“If the players show quality and do that, every day, every game, then at the end of the season there will be silverware. We need to focus on ourselves.”"

Hearts almost got the better of the Rangers in their previous meeting before two late goals from the Ibrox side turned the game around. Let’s see if Steven Naismith’s side can go a step beyond this time around to clinch the win and a place in the Scottish League Cup final.

The result won’t really matter for Celtic. Brendan Rodgers’ side have bigger things to worry about at the moment, namely their underwhelming performances in the past couple of games.