BBC pundit shares ‘Phenomenal’ admission amid Rangers development under Clement

The recovery Rangers have made since Philippe Clement replaced Michael Beale as manager at Ibrox has been “phenomenal”, according to Billy Dodds.

Speaking on the BBC’s Scottish Football Podcast on Monday (8 January, 04:19), the pundit said anyone associated with the Gers would have “bitten your hands off” to have won a trophy, be in the last 16 of the Europa League and be back in the SPFL title race when the Belgian took charge in October.

He added that the Light Blues have “recovered brilliantly” from their early-season form as they now look to challenge for more silverware in the second half of the seas

“I think they have done well to recover,” said Dodds. “When you talk through the hard time and the start of the season when they were really struggling to put anything together and get a run going.

“You’re at Rangers, you have to win games. It doesn’t matter how you win them as long as you get results and challenge your biggest rivals, and that wasn’t happening.

“Europe was disappointing in terms of some of the results, the Champions League. Then they’ve obviously recovered brilliantly since they made the change, Michael Beale has gone.

“I think if you’d said to any Rangers supporter, coach, manager, anybody connected with the club, you will have won a trophy, be in the last 16 of Europe and you’ll be clawing Celtic back by the second, I think they would’ve bitten your hands off. The recovery for me has been phenomenal.”

Confidence

There is a completely different feel around Ibrox about Rangers’ chances under Clement compared to when Beale was at the helm.

The Gers were beyond poor in the first couple of months of the campaign and there was no doubt that they weren’t going anywhere under the Englishman.

The decision to let him go was made at just the right time to ensure the Belgian could come in and make an immediate impact to keep their hopes of silverware alive.

While he only had to win a couple of games to claim the Viaplay Cup success over Aberdeen in December, the confidence he had instilled in the squad in the build-up to that match was pivotal.

While the recent Old Firm defeat to Celtic was a setback, the Light Blues will still feel they are very much moving in the right direction and can compete for more trophies in this campaign.