Philippe Clement reiterates commitment to Rangers in wake of Nils Koppen promotion
Philippe Clement reiterated his commitment to Rangers as he welcomed the clarity offered by Nils Koppen’s promotion.
Koppen was this week appointed as technical director after joining Rangers from PSV Eindhoven in January as director of football recruitment.
Koppen, who previously worked with Clement at Genk, will continue to oversee the club’s transfer strategy and will now take on overall responsibility for the men’s academy, medical, football operations, performance and analysis departments.
The appointment brings some kind of stability following the recent departures of chairman John Bennett, chief executive James Bisgrove and director of football operations Creag Robertson.
Speaking ahead of Saturday’s William Hill Premiership encounter with Dundee United at Ibrox, Clement said: “It’s important that there can be decisions made. It’s been a strange period, the last couple of months, where there has been a kind of vacuum in the club.
“With people stepping in, in the interim role and helping in that way, and also looking for a new chairman, new CEO, helping in the club. But it’s clear, now also with Creag leaving, we needed somebody to make decisions in the short term, not only on the long term.
“So, Nils will take over several responsibilities that Creag had. But that was also a role that he was already doing, in a way, together with me, about the short term, things to change in the club and to do in the club.
“So, there’s always a lot of things to do, with staff, with infrastructure, with a lot of things. So, it’s positive there’s clarity in that way now.
“It’s been a very intense period. Still now, there’s a lot of things to do.
“But it’s good that there’s clarity about that and that everybody has a clear role.
“Some things that came on my plate the last couple of months, they don’t need to come on the plate of a manager, in any club in the world. So, in that way, it will help, for sure, myself.”
Clement was this week linked with the Belgium head coach role after his former Club Brugge chief executive Vincent Mannaert was appointed sporting director at the Belgian football federation amid a poor run of results under Domenico Tedesco.
The former Monaco boss dismissed questions about the reports.
“I don’t want to go into rumours about players, so I’m not going to go into rumours about those things,” he said.
“But I was really clear that I said that I engaged myself for the long term to Rangers, and I’m not going to change my mind in that. So, I think it’s very clear.”
Clement suffered a blow this week when Neraysho Kasanwirjo suffered a knee injury while playing for Netherlands Under-21s.
The injury is still to be diagnosed but the on-loan Feyenoord defender looks set for surgery and a lengthy lay-off.
“We will have more news probably during the weekend, but it’s for sure a longer term injury,” Clement said.
“It’s really hard because he was adapting really well to the club, to the mentality here.
“He showed good things in the games, in training, and he was showing the right quality, so it’s a big blow for all of us that he’s injured.”
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