'It Shocked Me' - Pundit reacts as Clement makes changes to address 'Disturbing' Rangers issue

Philippe Clement will be bringing in the “best” people at Rangers as he looks to address the ongoing issue with players’ fitness, says Derek Ferguson.

Chris Jack reported for Rangers Review on 17 July that changes were expected behind the scenes this summer after the manager was “clearly irked” by the problem.

And the Belgian has now confirmed that has happened in an interview with Rangers Review on 15 July although he didn’t want to go into detail out of respect to the medical staff who had been at the club previously.

Ferguson admits he was “shocked” to see how frustrated Clement had been when he arrived to take over from Michael Beale and believes it is “disturbing” that a club the size of Rangers were apparently so off the pace on player fitness in the modern age.

Emphasising the importance of making changes he exclusively told Ibrox News: “Yeah, big time. It’s been a problem over the course of the last number of seasons.

“It was clear to see that the manager, when he took over from Michael Beale, that he was really frustrated with the fitness of the players, which actually at the time it shocked me.

“You look at the clubs in this day and age, the facilities, the sports science, everything that goes with it, it was quite disturbing to see that the players’ fitness wasnae up to scratch.

“But we seem to have a number of guys who throughout their careers have been dogged by injury, which is horrible, we hate to see that, but I think Philippe Clement is massively into that, he looks into everything.

“So he’ll want to bring the best people to the club, whether that’s doctors, sports scientists, physios, I think you’ll see a big difference in that department.“

Philippe Clement unimpressed by Rangers situation after Michael Beale exit

Clement’s changes badly need to have the desired effect as the number of injuries that have continually piled up for the Light Blues in recent seasons has put them at a major disadvantage.

Kemar Roofe and Ryan Jack have been released this summer due to the investment being too risky if they are regularly unavailable, with even the suggestion of a pay-as-you-play deal to bring back the latter [David Tanner, 1 June] dismissed as not worthwhile.

Some injuries can’t be avoided but when Tom Lawrence, Ridvan Yilmaz, John Souttar, Danilo, Kieran Dowell, Ianis Hagi, Oscar Cortes and Abdallah Sima are all others who have had either serious or repeated lay-offs in the recent past it suggests something is wrong.

Clement appears to be fighting an uphill battle in many ways at Ibrox at the moment but will hope the changes to the medical department can at least ease this chronic problem.

In other Rangers news, “huge” update emerges after the Light Blues reportedly made a massive new transfer bid.

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