Ross County’s visit to Hampden Park this weekend could be Rangers’ last use of the national stadium before heading back to a renovated Ibrox, manager Philippe Clement has admitted.
But he stressed “there’s a possibility but not a certainty”.
The Glasgow club have played three home fixtures at Hampden because of the delayed refurbishment of the Copland Stand.
Rangers chairman John Bennett had targeted the home game against Hibernian on 28 September as “aspirational” for a return, but Clement was asked if it was possible the Premier Sports Cup quarter-final against Dundee could be at Ibrox a week earlier.
“Nothing can be confirmed until it is sure, but people are working really hard to make it as fast as possible,” Clement replied.
The Belgian pointed out that, with outside contractors involved, Rangers “don’t have everything in our own hands”.
However, he stressed: “All the club has been pushing to make sure this transition period is as short as possible – that we could go back to Ibrox as quick as possible – and they are still doing.”
Clement, meanwhile, refused to comment on media stories about players possibly leaving Ibrox, or arriving, during the current transfer window.
Asked if he would be able to sign players if nobody left, he admitted: “Then it’s going to be very difficult.”
Clement stressed it was not as simple as one out, one in.
“It is to do with money,” he said. “It is to do with high wages from the past and replacing them with players with lower wages.”
Midfielders Ianis Hagi and Todd Cantwell are not training with the first team as Clement continues to insist that their futures lie away from Ibrox.
“I speak not only of Rangers, it is more Scotland,” said Clement of Cantwell’s desire to move on.
Asked why Hagi had been playing for Rangers’ B team but Cantwell was not, Clement added that it was “not my decision”.
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