Philippe Clement pledges future to Rangers ahead of Europa League opener

Philippe Clement insists that he is "here to stay" at Rangers amid speculation about his suitability for the vacant Anderlecht job.

The Brussels outfit are looking for a new boss after sacking Danish boss Brian Riemer last week and former Belgium international Nordin Jbari insists the Light Blues' Belgian boss would be an ideal replacement.

Ahead of the Europa League opener against Malmo in Sweden on Thursday night, Clement who a new deal in August to keep him at Ibrox until at least 2028 and who played for and managed Club Brugge, gave the notion short shrift.

"I want to speak about that," said the Belgian revealed Oscar Cortes is out for a "several weeks" with a training knock picked up in training after only recently returning to fitness.

"It's really clear, I engaged myself long-term for Rangers last month, so whoever comes, whatever team comes, I'm not going to go away.

"I’m really clear. I want this project with the club to make it really successful for the future, and we all know we need time for that, we need a few transfer windows for that, we need a lot of work to do for that, and that's what I want to do.

"Because I love the city, I love the club, I love the dynamic at Ibrox with the fans, so I'm here to stay."

Clement was happy to hear that stand-in chairman John Gilligan promised money to spend when the January transfer window opens.

He said: "It’s important and it's necessary.

"It was not easy in the summer, we talked about that, maybe the people in the club will talk about that later on, in the next couple of months also, about that situation.

"Of course, as a manager you hope to get more funds in to do the right thing for the club, but with the resources that were there, I think everybody is starting to see that a lot of good things have been made.

"And it's now interesting to work with that and to focus on that. And then, of course, to plan towards January, what we are doing already, and to plan towards next summer.

"We're also busy with that, but that's our job and with recruitment to do.

"It's important to have also money to do the right things for the club."

Rangers' 20-year-old Colombia attacker Cortes only recently returned from a knee injury picked up on the opening day of the William Hill Premiership campaign against Hearts at Tynecastle and Clement is hoping he has run out of bad luck.

He said: "He got a knock and will be out for several weeks, so that's a disappointing thing, because he was growing back to his best level, and showing the player that he was, or that he is, and that he will be in the future.

"It's duels: it's football, it's part of football, and you have lucky moments and you have unlucky moments.

"This was an unlucky one, also not a crazy tackle, but you have duels in football and then things can happen.

"He's been really unlucky these last couple of months with those things.

"I hope all the bad luck for him stops now, and the rest of his career will be the good luck side, but it's part of football.

"The rest of the squad stays the same as last weekend."

With left-back Ridvan Yilmaz still out injured and Jefte suspended, Clement does not have a natural left-back available to face the Swedes, aside from 21-year-old Robbie Fraser, albeit man-of-many-positions Dujon Sterling could fill in at Malmo Stadion.

Clement said: "We need to find some solutions, of course, because of the suspension of Jefte, and also because Ridvan Yilmaz is not available yet, so that will change some things that we didn't have much time to train on, but that we did the last couple of days.

"It's about going full in this game against a good opponent, a very good opponent who plays good offensive football, who are top of the league, who have a lot of experience in Europe with a lot of players, so everybody's excited to play this game."

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