Rangers manager Philippe Clement has definitively classified how transfers will work at Ibrox under his management, clearing up his position and that of the club.

The long-held belief is that Clement, like at his previous clubs, would let a Sporting Director do all the work with recruitment, and his job, purely and specifically, would be to work with the players he had.

He would play no major role in the acquisition of players. Sporting Director supplies the new players, he coaches them.

Clement has today clarified the position, and it now seems pretty clear:

“I don’t work in a club where it’s my job and their job. Because our job is together and that’s really crucial in every decision that is made. That is also one reason why I’m here because we had really good talks and I had a really good feeling about those things. These were people who wanted to do a strong story together.”

So this does help.

As Ibrox Noise suggested, Clement’s role in recruitment will be massively reduced – he will basically liaise with Director of Football Recruitment Nils Koppen and the rest of the football management staff to identify what is needed. Positions, support, you name it.

He will tell them the kind of player he is looking for, the style if you like.

It will then be their job to find that player, and once the data-processing of it is done, scouts will then watch in person.

He went on:

“I want to work in a club where it’s a family and everyone wants to work hard. That’s what I’m feeling until now. I don’t have any doubts it will be the case in the next few weeks or months. That (if you can be confident you will get the players needed) you never know. Because you can want a player and someone else wants him also. They have more money and the player wants more money. That’s part of the business.”

So, in summary:

Like the whole scouting team, Clement will have a few players he personally does want – and he’ll relay that to the recruitment. But the whole thing is a team effort and all the players who come in will be a combination of some of his players, and a bunch of players the scouting team have found for him.

They will do all the red tape business of bringing these players in, and Clement will get to work with them.

His main contribution to the recruitment is telling the staff what he wants. They do the legwork in getting him that.

And we’re quite happy with that.