Philippe Clement delivered what can only be described as a brilliant response to STV’s Raman Bharwaj today when the notoriously ‘baiting’ sports journalist offered the boss a chance to trip himself, and Rangers’ canny boss did not take it, and provided an incredibly smart and intelligent reply.

Speaking before tomorrow’s clash with St Johnstone, Bhardwaj asked Clement how impressed he’d been by Dujon Sterling, and the boss, in typically cool fashion, really did nail his reply:

“Impressed is maybe not a good word, because then you didn’t have that belief (in the player) before. I think if I… my English is not that good to go that much into detail, about words… no, I expected from him what I saw in the training and I told the club already that he’s going to become a really important player for the future.”

What a smart reply, and from one whose mother tongue isn’t English it certainly shows a brilliant understanding of what he’s being asked, and what trap is being set by the journo.

With his answer, he’s showing that no one is impressing him on the pitch, that they are simply meeting his expectations of why he selected them.

It’s a cool, calm, and collected way of assessing his players without giving them an ego and without bigging any individuals up more than they perhaps need.

He will slip up, he’s only human, but while Ibrox Noise tries not to take too seriously press conferences with our players and managers any more, we still report them for you, and offer you our takes on what is being said.

And in this instance, Clement’s reply was certainly ‘impressive’.