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players seated by Clement in order to assess the situation.
The local ref didn’t like what Philippe Clement had to say for himself in La Manga.
But Scott Wright was all ears as he sat down to hear his Rangers manager spell out his masterplan for success at Ibrox this season. The big Belgian’s strange sending off stole the headlines on Saturday as got his marching orders after letting rip at the officials during the bounce-game clash with Hertha Berlin. But according to Wright, the real story of Gers’ week in Spain has been the strengthening of bonds between manager and players.
Clement has worked his troops hard, hammering them on the training pitch with double sessions in a bid to get Gers up to peak fitness for a huge second half of the season. But he’s also made use of the time away to drill into his men on an individual basis, spending his evenings hosting a string of one-to-one talks.
Those candid chats have been vital for the boss, offering the first real chance since taking over three months ago to sit down and work out how each of his players tick. And Wright reckons the private tutorials have been just as beneficial to the Ibrox stars like him as they look to take on board the lessons Clement believes will see them survive the examinations still to come this term.
“It’s been really good,” said the Light Blues winger. “It’s been a lot of hard work, but it’s been good to get this time to work with the manager because we haven’t really had that opportunity. It’s good to get a block of time to get more training done and get his ideas across.
“We’ve had that here in Spain so it’s been brilliant. The manager has held talks with each player individually and that has been great. He has more time at the moment to put across what he wants.
“He’s managed to get the boys a bit more so it’s been really good to come away as a team and build up what was already a strong bond. We are trying to build for the season half of the season so it’s been really important to come away. I had a chat with the manager, he managed to work his way around the group when we were here.
“It was just a basic chat to see where you are, where you can improve and the things he wants you to work on. It’s about getting the best out of each other and that’s all he wants really, just to get the best out of his players.
“It’s a great bunch of boys so coming away and spending all that time together has been good. Those bonds will only get stronger as we push on into the second half of the season.
“Every player is different but it’s important to have that bond and understanding. It’s about tapping into different things to get the best out of each player. At a club like this you might not be playing and then all of a sudden you are thrown into it.
“You are always expected to perform so it’s about making sure that you are ready. I think he’s very clear, he brings clarity.
“We are understanding what he wants and how he wants his team to look out on the pitch. He’s a great man-manager, he knows how to talk to the players individually and collectively and I think the bond is only going to get stronger. We are looking to use that in the second half of the season.”
Gers are heading home from Spain after recharging batteries following a draining festive run that saw them squeeze 11 games into the space of 37 days. Their new year schedule isn’t much kinder, with the Ibrox side potentially facing another 13 fixtures before the next international break in March if they reach the last eight of the Scottish Cup. But Wright isn’t complaining.
“It’s great,” he said. “You want to be involved in all these games because you want to be successful. We want to fight for every competition we’re in and that’s what we’re going to do.
“When you play this many games it means that you must be doing something right. We’re just going to take it game by game, though, try to build on the stuff we’ve been doing here in Spain and look to take it into the second half of the season.”
There’s been plenty for Rangers fans to be encouraged about as they look ahead. Win their two games in hand and they’ll be just two points off Celtic in the title race. There’s Europa League last 16 action to look forward too with the Viaplay Cup already in the bag. And Wright reckons there’s more to come.
“The manager wants us to go up another two or three levels,” he explained. “But as he has said, that is going to take a bit of time.
“He’s been happy with where we were before but he now wants us to go again. But you can see that he’s hell-bent on making sure that we do that.
“We as a team are going to buy into that. We can feed off him and he can feed off us. There’s new signings due to come in and injured players coming back. Seeing these boys coming back gives everyone a lift.
“At a club like this, it’s about having competition every single day in training, never mind in games. You have to fight for your spot and try to keep it.
“The schedule can be a bit broken when you’ve got a game every two or three days. You train and then you recover but some boys won’t be out on the pitch, some boys will. This week has been about getting the full group together and making sure everybody has that clarity so they know exactly what the manager wants.”
