Philippe Clement cited "fake news" as he offered a firm response to speculation surrounding a Rangers transfer exit for James Tavernier and Connor Goldson.
The Ibrox manager was quizzed on the future of the pair during the pre-season trip to the Netherlands as rumours persist over a possible move away from Glasgow.
Tavernier - who hasn't featured in any friendly matches yet - has been touted for a switch to Saudi Arabia with Goldson heavily linked with Birmingham in recent weeks.
But Clement insisted the speculation over exits is "fake news" before admitting Rangers would discuss a deal with clubs should interest arise and the financial side prove worthwhile.
“There is a lot of speculation in Glasgow and I have read a lot of things that you say are totally not true, said Clement when asked about Tavernier and Goldson's futures at the club.
“Fake news. But it is part of being in Glasgow. You cannot react to every fake news because then you’ll only be busy with that.
“What I see is that they brought a lot to the club the last couple of years. That they did really good games with me. They also did games where it was less, like all the team.
“For me they maybe played too much last season or the last couple of years because if you play 60 games nobody is every time at his top shape. They have done all of that for the club, they worked really hard for that.
“They are not going to play 60 games the season to come now and all the speculation around them is the same speculation that you can have around every player. It is the same for us.
“If there is somebody coming with the right amount of money we will see, we will discuss. But you always need to see and then you need to replace somebody and you need enough money to replace them to make it better, otherwise it is also of no use. It is finding a balance in that way.
“I think there is only one player that is irreplaceable at the moment that I don’t think a team will pay the money that he is worth, for sure, and that is Jack Butland. Everybody knows what I think about that.”
Read more:
Clement went on to insist every player in the Netherlands with the Rangers squad is part of his plans as he set out his stall on Jack Butland, who he is determined to keep unless at bid upwards of £30m is received.
He said: “Everybody who is here is part of my plans. It is like that. Otherwise they would not be here.
"That is the thing with fans, I think it changed with having the PlayStation or Football Manager and you can say ‘this player I don’t like he needs to be out’.
“It doesn’t work that way. These guys have contracts. I don’t speak now about Connor and Tav, it is just in general, all over the world it doesn’t work that way.
“You always need to be with two parties. Every player falls into that category. Only Jack. If somebody comes with £30million or £40million you can replace him for that money.
“Every player falls into that category. We need money to replace him. If it is a good amount you can replace him and do something else. We will see.”
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