Hibernian boss Nick Montgomery insists the “pressure” is on new Rangers manager Philippe Clement to perform.

The Belgian takes on the Edinburgh club in his first game in charge of the Ibrox side as they look to close the gap at the top of the Scottish Premiership on rivals Celtic.

And Montgomery, who had a similar timeframe to the 49-year-old before his first game charge, opened up on the positives and negatives of having such a quick turnaround.

He said: “If you saw what we did within a week before we went to Kilmarnock, I think we changed a lot but really, you have to have the buy-in from the players.

“The players have to buy into you quite early to implement what you want them to.

 “I can’t talk about what Philippe has done this week, they had players on international duty like we did in my first week and you really only get about 48 hours with them.

“It’s not ideal but it’s a home game for them so it’s probably a little bit easier than going away from home and I’m sure he’ll try to implement as much as he possibly can in a short space of time.

“No club, especially not one the size of Rangers, wants to be without a manager because it gives the players doubt, it gives the fans doubt, and I’m sure the board acted swiftly to bring in someone of that calibre.

“The pressure is on him now to perform and implement what he wants and I’m sure they all want that quickly, but it is his first game, and they won’t expect miracles. 

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“But they’re a high-quality team with a huge budget and I’m sure they’ll be happy to have a manager.”

The 41-year-old also praised the Ibrox boss’ experience as manager, touching on the success he has had in the past.

Clement won three consecutive league titles in Belgium, one with Genk in 2018/19 and two with Club Brugge in 2019-20 and 2020-21, as well as the Super Cup.

And Montgomery has no doubts about his opponent’s ability. “He’s a manager with a lot of experience and success at big clubs," he continued.

"I’m sure the players were ready for someone to come in and I’m sure he delivered the message he needed to on day one and then spent the rest of the week trying to implement what he wants from them,”

“But you’re talking very good players, high-quality players that probably have a high game intelligence so a lot of information, but they’ll be used to that.

"You can expect a hostile environment. The fans will be buoyed by bringing in a new coach because that’s what they wanted.”

The trip to Ibrox is the Easter Road manager’s first game in Glasgow in the dugout and he is well aware of the challenge he faces.

He opened up on his excitement about the occasion but made clear his message to the players will not change.

“I played with Stuart McCall [at Sheffield United} and we talked a lot about his time at Rangers and how amazing the fans were in the stadium,” he added

“I’ve driven past Ibrox but never been inside as a player or a coach so I’m really looking forward to it.

“Any big club, the fans’ expectations are that the team should win every game and we have two big clubs in this league.

“Rangers is a massive club, and the expectation is that they will dominate the competition along with Celtic and that’s normal, it’s been like that for a long time.

“You have to compete from the first whistle and once the game settles down that’s when you see most teams’ identity come to life as the game becomes stretched. 

“The message isn’t any different from me than it has been every week. We concentrate on the way we play, we’re not going to change the way we play, but we will give them full respect - they’re obviously a very good team with good individual players but we do just concentrate on ourselves.

“But we’re not naive enough to think that we’re not playing against a very good team, because we are.”