Breaking News:Rangers transfer frustration over new signings blockage as he lays out Clinton Nsiala
Leon Balogun is facing a Champions League sweat.
The Nigerian defender is fighting to be fit for Dynamo Kyiv after sustaining a weekend injury against Motherwell. Rangers boss Philippe Clement revealed: “Leon felt something at the end of the game. He didn’t train today [Monday] and we will see how he is tomorrow [Tuesday]. It is a really short turnaround, it’s more about recovery.
“It is about making the choices on who to start, knowing that for several positions there can be interchange and it is about who to put in at that moment. You need to make good decisions on what you need at the beginning of the game and also at the end of the game and extra time is a possibility, too. There are interesting choices to make.”
Clement, meanwhile, stayed tight-lipped on the departure of Jose Cifuentes, who is closing in on a move to Greek side Aris Thessaloniki. The boss admits it’s a delicate business moving players out to make way for new faces.
Clement said: “I didn’t hear anything that something is done with somebody. That is a pity. We have several here still in the building, or like Cifu not in the building, and because of that also it stops to get other players. For the moment, I didn’t hear that somebody officially is going somewhere else. It is not the nicest thing, but you need to adapt. I told you, I am not the accountant and the club don’t ask me to pay for everything.
“I know my role in the story is to get the best out of the squad that is here and to make the squad better for the future, to make it better also that we have more players that have the capability to grow here and gain interest from other clubs to sell them for the future. That plan is clear.”
Clement, though, refused to suggest players hanging around is an issue as he added: “I cannot say that anybody affects the training pitch or the atmosphere because then it is easy to put them out of the building also. That has not been the case.
“Everybody who has been training here was with the right attitude and also in the right way in the dressing room. I had a talk with the captain group about that a while ago that they had to keep an eye on that and give me signals if it is not the case. It is not. There are no problems around that.”
Clement also updated on news Clinton Nsiala and Hamza Igamane. He said: “Clinton is training and Hamza is doing part of the training with the group, so step by step he is going to the physical level that we need in training and later in the games.
“He is showing a lot of interesting things with the ball, which we saw from him in the games we saw in Morocco. He is settling in well and with the language he is starting to learn his first English words. He is feeling really happy and grateful to be here. He is very determined to become a big player.
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