Clement: Champions League qualification can speed up Rangers evolution

Philippe Clement believes qualifying for the Champions League can speed up his Rangers evolution.

Boss Clement is in the middle of a huge squad overhaul this summer as the Gers look to challenge dominant Old Firm rivals Celtic, whose title win last season guaranteed them qualification for European football’s elite and lucrative club competition.

Meanwhile, the Light Blues are still trying to reach the promised land and go into Tuesday night’s third qualifying tie with Dynamo Kyiv at Hampden Park with the game poised at 1-1 from last week’s first leg in Poland, with RB Salzburg or FC Twente waiting in the play-off.

Clement knows the riches qualification success brings and noted the financial meltdown of the Ibrox club in 2012 when they re-emerged in the bottom tier of Scottish football after going into administration, as he looked ahead to the visit of the Ukrainian outfit.

He said: “I think it (qualification) can make things happen faster.

“Going to the Champions League is not budgeted and that is the best way because some teams have done that in the past and they had really big financial problems out of that. We can’t do that, clearly.

“Of course if you can go to the Champions League it will give you another budget, although it is only in the last hours of the transfer market at the moment. But it will be an important thing, for the future windows at the club.

“As a player, as a manager, it is about competing with the best. That is why I always like to be in the Champions League, it is the nicest place to be.

“It is also the most challenging place for players also because they can compete against the best and the world spotlight is on them. So that is the main thing.

“As a club you need to look at both. You need to look at the exposure and the tradition but the finance is really important in football and I think this club knows this really well after what happened 12 years ago.

“The club is really conscious. I know that and together we want to create a really good story, a strong story for the future but it is not a story you can write in three or four weeks, so we are working on that.

“The Champions League can make the story go faster.”