Philippe Clement dismisses Rangers rebuild negatives as Belgian says year-long criticism is 'not a reality'

Philippe Clement dismissed any idea of talks about his Rangers future at boardroom level despite the Light Blues falling further behind in the Scottish Premiership title race at the weekend - before stating that criticism over his year-long rebuild was 'not a reality'.

Dundee United were the latest team to take points off of Clement's men as they toiled to a 1-1 draw in Govan, with Sam Dalby's first half strike being cancelled out by Vaclav Cerny's equaliser in the second half - though the home outfit could not turn the game on its head.

The reality is that they are now 11 points behind local rivals Celtic and nine points behind second-placed Aberdeen with a game in hand - with Clement seemingly on borrowed time to fix his mistakes. But the Rangers boss played down any rumours of a boardroom meeting to discuss his future - before stating that criticism of a rebuild was untoward by stating that another one began again in the summer, as opposed to the start of his reign.

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Speaking ahead of Rangers' Europa League clash with Nice, the Belgian said: “Nothing, no board discussions. I had a meeting with the new CEO that was a really good talk, and that's it.

“I'm not busy with that. I'm busy with the team, I'm busy with getting results. I was disappointed, like I said, about the first-half [against Dundee United] that we didn't show enough quality and what we can do. What the team showed in the second-half, it's a game that you need to win - and one that you win nine out of 10, or 99 out of 100 times if you create that amount of chances.

“You get one chance against, it is the goal, and then you need to take the right conclusions out of what you did with the team. We look forward now towards this game in Europe.

“Everybody's talking about one year, and it's not a reality. It's four months now that there's been a rebuild. A lot of things changed in the club, so going back to that again; a chairman who's not there anymore, a CEO not there anymore, a director of operations not there anymore, an academy director not there anymore and a lot of other people also in the club.

“So referring to one year, it's not correct. It's about the last four or five months, a lot of changes have been made. 16 players in the squad, building a new squad ,and adapting the players towards what Rangers is about.

“There were good moments, there were good games, there were good results, there were bad moments, losing points that we didn't want to lose, that we cannot lose. We know the standards that Rangers are about but we are working all together really hard to get this consistency more because it's more about consistency also.

“No, I don't want to use excuses. Never. I don't want the players to use excuses. Never. So whatever is going on in the club, yes or no, we need to perform together. We need to win together. We know what Rangers is about.

"That's why we want to be here with all the players. Everybody who came knew already, knew also the story from my side before that it's all about winning. We are busy with creating that culture in the dressing room on the pitch with the new players, with the old players to gel it together, and in the football also to get this automatism.”