Chairman Peter Croonen is not surprised his former head coach is thriving in Glasgow after repeated success in Belgium.
Genk chairman Peter Croonen had admitted he still regrets losing Philippe Clement – and urged Rangers not to make the same mistake.
In an exclusive interview with Record Sport , Croonen has lifted the lid on his decision to give Clement a first big crack at football management in Belgium and detailed the qualities which have underpinned the Ibrox club’s shock surge back to the top of the Premiership table.
Clement left Genk for Brugge in 2019 just weeks after leading the club to the Pro League title after only 18 months in the job. He went on to rattle off three more consecutive championship wins in his homeland before joining Monaco two years ago. And, now that the 49-year-old has taken the Ibrox club back to the top of the pile in Scotland against all odds, Croonen has warned Rangers to keep him in Glasgow for as long as they possibly can.
Croonen said: “The longer Rangers can keep Phillipe the better for them. He has proven that he can repeat success over several seasons. The only thing that I regret about appointing him at Genk was that he left us after that first title. We asked him to stay but he decided to leave.”
Clement has shocked fans on both halves of Glasgow’s divide by overturning what appeared to be an unassailable Celtic lead in the space of just four months, following his appointment as Michael Beale’s successor. He also secured the first silverware of the season in December when he delivered the club’s first League Cup in 12 years.
And his side could open up a five point gap at the top of the table with a home win over Hearts on Saturday. But Croonen insists he’s not been the least bit surprised.
He went on: “No at all. If you look at the history of Philippe he made us champions in his second year as head coach.
“He went to Brugge and made them champions for three years in a row. So he’s one of the only coaches in the history of Belgian football who won four consecutive championships with two different teams.
“If I’m really honest, I can say I believe – to an important extent – we only played in the Champions League because Philippe was our head coach. I can say the same for Brugge. I don’t think they would have played three times in the Champions League if it hadn’t been for him.
“So his impact on the teams that he coaches is really very important. I’m not surprised at all that he’s been so successful in Glasgow already.”
And Coonen believes Clement deliberately chose to reignite his own coaching career by exposing himself to Glasgow’s hotbed environment after a low key 18 months in the millionaires playground of Monte Carlo. He said: “Absolutely. Philippe is a football animal and I think that was something he missed a lot in Monaco.
“I haven’t been in Glasgow yet but I plan to do so because I really want to experience the whole atmosphere of an Old Firm game and I look forward to doing that. I’ll be sending him a text to tell him that! We communicate, not every week or every month but we are still in contact because, in my time as a president, I really appreciate a lot that he’s somebody I was able to work with.”
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