Richard Gough happily admitted his Rangers team was one that guzzled pints as well as points.
‘The team that drinks together wins together’ was the famous Ibrox mantra of the glory-filled 1990s. Nowadays, Gers boss Philippe Clement would rather not go into too much detail on what his players get up to in their spare time. But that doesn’t mean he’s against squad socialising, far from in.
“For sure and we’ve been working on that,” said the Light Blues boss. “I even planned a day a few weeks ago that I wanted them to go out together and they did and had a lot of fun.
“Those things are also very important. Connection between people is so crucial. They need to work hard together but they need to count on each other also.
“They need to be there when somebody makes a fault so it’s very important to have these human relationships. In that way, it’s a really amazing dressing room for the moment.
“The new players have settled already, and it’s a really nice place to come into, so it’s good that they have the example from the beginning of the season where it was much more difficult between them and there was much more stress. Sometimes I feel it’s necessary to remind them about that. It’s two different worlds, but they need to keep in heaven like they are now but with their feet on the ground.
“There is a lot of fun but also a lot of hard work. Yeah that’s true [the players can’t drink to have fun] – but it doesn’t mean it cannot happen.
“You have to be smart these days. And you need to know in what moment, that’s the big difference.
“The game has become much more intense than 10, 20 years ago. So you don’t have many moments in a season when you can do it in a good way.
“That’s why I told the team when it was the moment to do it. And they did – and they had a lot of fun! That’s good, they are important moments.
“But you maybe only have three of those moments in a season. It’s not much. Moments in the dressing room and on the field are super important. But evenings like that also help you build relationships, so they are crucial.
“What did I send them to do? Not too much detail or they won’t be happy I said too much. The most important thing is that everyone had fun and they all enjoyed it.”
In fact, it was on the big Belgian’s direct order that James Tavernier and the rest of the Light Blues players took new recruits Fabio Silva, Mohamed Diomande and Oscar Cortes out recently for a spot of team bonding. It might not have extended to the kind of bevvy-fuelled antics that Ibrox icons Gough, Paul Gascoigne, Ally McCoist and Andy Goram notoriously involved themselves in during the club’s nine-in-a-row pomp. But Clement reckons extracurricular squad get-togethers can still have a similarly intoxicating effect on camp morale, even if it’s rounds of lattes rather than lagers being knocked back.
Fans got an hilarious insight into how the new signings are settling in at the club when Leon Balogun posted a video showing Diomande arriving for training wearing an Ivory Coast kit the morning after the Elephants had edged out Balogun’s Nigeria side to clinch AFCON glory.
It was a glimpse of the tight-knit bonds that have allowed Gers to shake off the painful early days of the season and fight their way back the point tonight where a two-goal win over Ross County will see the Light Blues storm to the top of the Premiership.
Balogun was only jesting when he warned his new team-mate not to forget his shin guards. But Clement has seen for himself the dangers of when personality splits divide a dressing room.
“For sure, yes. I’ve seen it as a player and a manager,” he said. “I’ve worked against it as a manager, to try to solve things because that is our job, to unite people and to get them to work together for one goal.
“Leon was joking about that but they are all really nice with each other in training. There’s never a problem.
“You see that from the first second that the new guys feel really accepted. I told the three new boys before they came in that they would join a really good dressing room.
“I told the dressing room too that I’d talked to the new guys about that, so I expected it also, that it would continue as it was before. And it has.
“And of course, if you show quality on the pitch it goes faster also. That’s how it works in football. If the other guys see a good player, it’s always faster that they are accepted.”
On the topic of acceptance, youngster Ross McCausland has faced some recent grumbles over his end product. The 20-year-old has chipped in with three goals and four assists since bursting into the team back in September.
But that’s not been enough to satisfy a small but vocal element of the Ibrox support on social media. It’s a view that Clement can’t understand.
“I see a player who was four months ago playing in the second team and who has been important in several games already this season,” he said.
“It is a big step up from playing for the second team to playing with Rangers. It’s not only about goals and statistics. It’s about all the other things you do.
“How he presses, how he wins balls. How he keeps possession for the team. How he works, how he is in the building. Four months ago nobody knew him. Now he has already played a lot of games for Rangers and been decisive in games and played for his national team.
“I think it’s a great evolution. That is why I am happy about it. Because of his mindset and focus and hunger, he will make an amazing career. Rangers will not be the last or the highest place that he will play.”
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