PHILIPPE Clement has given a strong indication that he will keep Alex Rae on his Ibrox backroom team permanently by praising the former Rangers midfielder’s contribution during his time in charge to date.
Rae, the lifelong Rangers supporter who spent two seasons at his boyhood heroes towards the end of his playing days, was asked to assist caretaker Steven Davis by directors after Michael Beale was sacked.
Clement, who has brought in his countryman Stephan Van Der Heyden as his assistant, retained the services of the Scot and Northern Ireland great Davis after he was appointed because he is keen to have coaching staff who know the Glasgow club.
However, the former Beveren, Genk, Club Brugge and Monaco manager stressed that he would only make a decision on who he will keep on after working with them at Auchenhowie over a prolonged period of time.
READ MORE: Rangers icon's return is a masterstroke - just don't expect revolution
The 49-year-old, though, has spoken in glowing terms about former Millwall, Sunderland and Wolves man Rae ahead of the cinch Premiership match against Hearts at Ibrox this afternoon and admitted that he values his new colleague’s strengths.
“We had good talks with the staff this week about what our expectations are in every role,” he said. “It’s starting to become more clear to me, the different profiles. They’re still on an interim basis right now and they know that.
“Alex is someone who knows the history of the club really well. That’s an important thing for me, to have people on the staff who know the club and the people within it.
“He’s also close with the players, he’s strong in that. He knows the dynamic in the dressing-room, which is also important for me. I need people to help in that way because I have to keep a certain distance. I can’t be there all the time.
“With all of my assistants, I have very open communication about everything, decisions, tactics. That’s the way we want to work. Alex is involved in that.”
Clement added: “Is it possible that he could stay on in the long-term? If it wasn’t possible, he wouldn’t be here any more. So, yeah, it’s just like with players.
“We need to find a really good mix of people. They all have good qualities, but we need the right mix to get the best out of the team. So we’ll make these evaluations in a few weeks. Not just two or three weeks, a little bit more than that.”
READ MORE: Zdenek Zlamal brands Rangers style 'insidious' under Steven Gerrard
The Belgian, who won his first match in charge of Rangers against Hibernian in the Premiership last weekend and then oversaw a draw with Sparta Prague in a Europa League group game over in the Czech Republic in midweek, is still unsure whether Davis will continue to coach.
British football’s all-time record capped outfield player had been working his way back to full fitness from knee surgery when he was asked to step into the dugout by the Ibrox hierarchy.
The 140-times capped 38-year-old confessed after the European defeat to Aris Limassol in Cyprus that his rehabilitation had not gone entirely according to plan and he was unsure if he would be able to make a comeback.
"We have had two very good long talks already about everything,” said Clement. "I understand his situation. I have also been a player. I have been in that moment, having to make a decision. Do I continue or not? So that situation is not clear yet and we will see in the next couple of weeks how it evolves.
"But it's an interesting period for them too because it's stepping into a new story. There is a lot of motivation in all of the staff to do that and we will see what decisions are made. It's too early to make them just now.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel