Every manager wants patience – and few understand. But Clement undoubtedly achieved more than predecessors Michael Beale and Giovanni Van BonckHorst.
After all, none of them suffered the ignominia of a defeat at home of the Scottish Cup by Queen Park of the second level.
Protesting that his squad needed time to develop and grow became a regular Clement chorus, and the passage of time did not change his view of it.
“It’s a pity that the story stopped, that the advice had no patience, or maybe heard a lot for some fans,” he says.
“There are other clubs where there is a difficult time and everyone gets together because everyone knows the story, how work is done inside the building, and they continue and are successful later.
“In three or four windows, we could have closed the gap [to Celtic] With a good development of players, but the decision is made and you need to accept it. “
While the Rangers tried to soften losses, Clement’s task was to usurp the Celtic, but with a budget decreasing.
Was he initially mistaken about which funds could be available to him?
“No, it was not fooled, but now I understand why,” he says. “Because some people were already thinking of selling the club and selling their shares.
“I think you need to go back a year ago. The story was that the club was no longer financially sustainable, so that was the history of the transfer window.”
Clement says he and the recruitment team were informed that they could spend any money that the club could recover on players’ sales and salary spending.
But despite taking “more than 35%” of salary law, an aged squad, contracts expiring, and the lack of attractive young talent, meant that the performance proved to be scarce.
“You make money by bringing young players, making them better and selling them,” says Clement. “That was the idea. There was no other way to go.
“In the end, it is to decide if the idea we had was working. You need patience to build it or need to spend money. It’s one of the two.
“Without one of the two, it’s an impossible job.”
