Former Rangers boss Philippe Clement has lifted the lid on the chaos behind the scenes at Ibrox, claiming the board knew they were financially outmatched by Celtic even before sacking him.
Clement was dismissed just 16 months into his tenure, with Rangers trailing Celtic by 13 points with 11 games to go. A damaging home defeat to St Mirren proved the final straw, after that Queens Park match in the cup, despite the Belgian having previously been asked to commit to a long-term plan by the club hierarchy.
Speaking on the Sacked in the Morning podcast, Clement opened up on the scale of the rebuild Rangers were facing and the gulf between Glasgow’s two top clubs.
“I think there was a big difference about everything around the team, even maybe a bigger difference than on the pitch in everything, in preparation, in everything around the club.
“That Celtic is much more organised than the periods that I was there for sure in these seven months where there was total chaos at Rangers.
“They asked me at the end of that season to renew the contract because they wanted to work longer term,” he added.
“And they said literally ‘okay, we know we don’t have the money that Celtic has for the moment. We don’t have really big value in our squads’ and that you saw also in that summer, there’s nobody sold for good money. At that moment, it was quite an older squad.
“So we know we’re going to need four, five, six maybe transfer windows to gain money again and to close this gap with Celtic.
“And it starts with getting young players in, develop them, make them better, and to sell them and to get money like this for the club and to build the club again where it should be.
“So that was the plan before the summer.”
Rangers were chasing Celtic with significantly less cash and substandard players. Celtic strolled to the league title last season, collecting the League Cup on the way. It was heartbreak in the Scottish Cup final, with Aberdeen edging Celtic on penalties.
Rangers were no match for Celtic last season, but they’re expected to take the step up this term and challenge Celtic, with the Hoops pushing for 5 in a row. Hearts are also strengthening, with Hibs also spending over £1m on a player. It could be a really good season in the SPFL.
