As Rangers prepare for their Premiership opener with Hearts on Saturday, manager Philippe Clement has been speaking to Sky Sports, external.
Here’s the best of what the Belgian had to say:
On Rangers’ summer…
“We knew we needed a rebuild, a rebuild is not a renovation.
“As manager you’d like to do a renovation, change one, two or three players and keep the core of your team, but that was not the case.
“We had an older squad, six players leaving for free, they were at the end of their contracts, that changed a lot.”
Is it a bigger rebuild than you expected?
“It’s a busy period that started later than normal because of the Euros.
“The club has already done a lot of things using the budget we have, but we don’t have a budget to spend money just because we have the money, so we have to do it wisely.”
How have things changed?
“You step into a club and you don’t know the club well, the squad well, every detail of every contract.
“For me it was a big surprise six players were out of contract. We had some we wanted to keep, but they took another way because they could earn much more money.
“Those things you can’t take into account in October [when I was appointed].”
On Todd Cantwell’s transfer request…
“I kept the door open all the time these past weeks. It’s already a while ago since he came to me for the first time with [the transfer request].
“As long as a player is here and we believe in his qualities, the door is always open [for him to stay].”
Are you where you want to be?
“We made really good steps this pre-season in ways people don’t see because they don’t know the past or the details.
“We’re still very busy in the transfer market. I’m very convinced Vaclav Cerny will be a really, really important signing and I’m convinced we can make a good start to the season.”
On potential interest in Lawrence Shankland…
“That’s a name that comes a lot, but there also other names. It stays the same, I will never speak about rumours and for sure not players we play against.
Would you back Rangers to win the league?
“I’ll put all my effort into that. That’s what we need to do. We know [Celtic’s summer] is a small renovation with a few details and they can build on their core.
“We have a big rebuild. Let us first make a good foundation and build our house over the next couple of weeks and months to make it much stronger.”
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