6 Philippe Clement Rangers presser takeaways as Jefte transfer desire made clear and he pitches Ibrox for semi final

Philippe Clement watched his Rangers stars bury Dundee in the Premier Sports Cup quarter-final before insisting they could have hit SIX.

The Ibrox outfit secured their passage to the semi-final with a 3-0 victory over the Dees thanks to a double from Cyriel Dessers and a James Tavernier penalty. It was comfortable for the Light Blues - albeit Tony Docherty's side had their chances - but Clement was adamant his squad should've beaten Trevor Carson a few times more.

Still, he was pleased to see it through and he spoke on his delight at being back at Ibrox for the first time this season. Clement also spoke in detail about the impressive Jefte and his January transfer desire, returning to Hampden for the semi clash coming up and subbing Tavernier off for a standing ovation. Football Scotland has the key takeaways from his post-match presser.

READ MORE: 7 Rangers vs Dundee standouts as Cyriel Dessers struts stuff and Trevor Carson unlucky

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Pleased with outing?

Of course pleased because you go through in the cup and it's important against a difficult team to break. Because Dundee is good in that, in making a very good organisation and dangerous on the counter-attack with Murray. So we had this experience already with Ross County last season. So I'm pleased about the goals but also about the clean sheet. That's very important. And I'm pleased also with so many new faces. The first time at Ibrox that they feel the energy, that they feel the fans. That the fans can see also the new players coming in and performing already well. But it's just the start of a story. So I see also a lot of things we still can improve. So I'm hungry about that.

Happy to be back at Ibrox?

You cannot describe it. I said it this week, it felt like 10 years. That feeling I had. We've been playing like two, three months only away games. So that's really difficult as a team. So we were super happy to be back. And I'm happy also that the players could give this performance also. Because we wanted to give the fans something special. But of course we should have scored maybe six or seven today. And to be more clinical in that way. We need to keep on working on that.

Jefte has been impressing punters

Yeah of course and we wanted him already in January. And he wanted to come also. But at that moment it was stopped by his team. But we stayed in touch all these months. And he showed also a real desire to come. And to fight for that. Yeah of course I said it so many times already. It was the end of a cycle. We had a lot of players in the squad who were over their best period. We had seven players going out of the building for free. Or could go out for free.

There were some we wanted to keep but they could earn much more money somewhere else. So they made that choice. So it was a hard way to start a rebuild. And it just started that way. We could not do everything in one window. But it's good now that people start to see the young talented players who came in. That they have the quality now or for the future for sure to become important players. And I understand that in the beginning there were scepticism about that. Because players coming in who never played at this level. So fans want to see that. But if I learned one thing about this club it is that the fans know really well what quality is. And they desire quality. So we've been looking for that in the pool with the money we had, what was not much compared to other teams, to find real quality for short term but for sure for the longer term.

Back to Hampden for semi

Can we not play once at Ibrox? The semi-final? We've played enough at Hampden!

Subbing Tav

He played a good game. And he deserves that. And maybe after the Celtic game we have a few individuals who are crossing a certain line. What's not good. And I understand the frustration. But there are a lot of people who understand the value that Tav had and has for this squad. And that's also good for him to feel that. But that's the life of being a captain in a big club. You're the symbol in the good days and then it's nice. Like today. And in the difficult days you're also the one everybody looks at. But that's life of being a captain or a manager in that kind of club. You need to embrace that also. And he did. Last couple of weeks he worked hard. He wanted to dig in, to come back strong. And he helped all the young lads in their integration also because he has an important job in that also.

Can Hampden return benefit Rangers?

No, I don't think so. I don't think it's a difference. Last year we didn't play those games and we played our games there and we did our work there. It's more like an away game for the two teams. It's more like that.