A fair bit is being made about Rangers manager Philippe Clement’s comments where he scolded the board for telling him to prioritise the League Cup over Europe, with some headlines and debate from various quarters of the support and the media.

Let’s look at what he said:

“No (Benfica isn’t a distraction). And I said it in December. There were some people of the board who told me before our European game that it was maybe more important that we won the League Cup. I told them I never go that way because I want players who are hungry for every occasion and want to win every occasion.”

We get what he’s saying.

He went on:

“It doesn’t work that way. It is not like a menu in a restaurant that you pick out and now we are going to perform there or there. Like this, you don’t create a winning culture. OK it is a busy schedule, that is true, but it is about us working really hard with all the players, all the staff to get the players ready and for the players also to show that they are ready for that kind of competition. We are going to full for this game, going to go full at the weekend and go full again on Thursday. We will go like that until the end of the season.”

With over a third of the squad out injured, that will be hard.

Then he said:

“No [the comment didn’t surprise me] because it was really with good intentions. The hunger to win a trophy again was so big in the club that everybody put emphasis on that. But afterwards, after our night in Spain, they were also really happy. And after winning the League Cup they were even more happy that they had both. I think everybody understands that we want to get the best out of everything and that we are going to work hard for that.”

We absolutely agree that Rangers need/want to win everything we enter, and we should never go into any match believing our club isn’t worthy of winning. We might think there’s a great deal of difficulty v Benfica tonight given the latest injury crisis and missing players, but we’re not admitting defeat over two legs.

But we think we also have to be practical, and the fans aren’t completely aligned with Clement on this in a sense, because every one of them wants 56 above all else.

Clement wants to win the lot, and he’s right that prioritising some things less hints less at a winning mentality in general.

You make champions by going at it all. We absolutely get that.

But you also need to be pragmatic and know it’s hard to win the lot when your injuries are this bad and the squad isn’t absolutely outstanding even if fit.

But it’s not like he should ever say that to the press!