THEY say there’s no gain without pain.
And right now Rangers supporters are agonising about the direction their club is going in once more.
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But under-pressure manager Philippe Clement insists he always knew the Ibrox club would have to take at least one step backwards before they could think about starting the journey forwards.
Wednesday’s loss to Aberdeen saw Gers crash nine points adrift of the Dons and Celtic.
It made an already tricky Premier Sports Cup semi-final against Motherwell tomorrow an even bigger mountain to climb.
Defeat doesn’t bear thinking about for the hordes of Light Blues supporters who will head for Hampden.
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A defeat would surely push Clement closer to the exit door.
But the Belgian gaffer is adamant he knew it was would be darkest before the dawn when he penned an extension to his deal in the summer.
Asked about the prospect of suffering pain along the way, Clement said: “The chance of that was always much bigger than it was being a smooth ride from the start. Of course I would always prefer a smooth ride and I have been working with all the players to get to that as fast as possible and to get them knowing the story really well to make it really successful from the start. But you can never predict that.
“You need time to build things, like every manager.”
Some feel time is running out for Clement.
This time last year he was starting to mastermind the revival of the club using the players left behind by the sacked Michael Beale.
He lifted the Premier Sports Cup and got Gers back into the title race, only to blow it spectacularly in the final weeks. After reshaping things in the summer, though, these are now his players — and they haven’t been performing.
In Glasgow’s goldfish bowl it’s never easy to take time out from the expectation and the responsibility that comes with being an Old Firm boss.
But Clement would never want to focus on anything else.
He said: “I don’t want to switch off. It has never been my life to switch off.
“I don’t like doing that too much. My wife knows that.
“Of course, she likes it more when we win games and when everybody’s happy with me and that I’m a really good manager. That’s normal. How do I cope with the scrutiny and criticism? It’s part of my life. It’s part of football.
“It’s difficult as a manager that you cannot explain everything. It’s not good, but it’s part of my life.
“Do I lean on others in the game who I speak to? I always do, with friends in football, in this job, with colleagues, with my staff, with my family.
“I think it’s important to not stay in the tunnel. I always want a really open vision about everything.”
With his squad’s confidence at rock bottom, Clement must now raise his players for the clash with Well.
He has been trying to get inside their minds over the past 72 hours but hasn’t asked them to change tactics.
Clement said: “With the group and individually we’ve used examples from other times, also from last season.
“For a lot of guys, there are good examples. For the new ones there are not. So it’s a really individual thing.
“But it’s not only about fighting, defending or running all over the pitch. You also need to do good things with the ball.
“If it was that easy, this job would be much more simple.
“Changing formation at this moment will only create more doubts. How are you going to change the formation if you can train on it only once?
“How are you going to train on how you build, how you create chances, how you defend? All in a one-hour session?
“Yes, you can build on things. If you have some foundation, something solid, you can build on the next step.
“But we’re not that far with this group to be able to do that. It’s difficult to turn that around in one day.
“It’s also not about one cup or one thing that’s important. It’s about every three days getting consistency in our basics and becoming better and growing in the details.
“That’s the disappointing thing about the first goal we lost against Aberdeen.
“We didn’t follow our principles or our basics and it opened up everything.
“Those are harsh lessons but lessons we need to take for the rest of the season. We want to work hard on all these things, but we play every three days.
“There’s one training session to focus on one thing, which means you do less on another.
“For sure we need to improve how we build and how we defend. There are still things for us to work on.
“We have also been missing players, Rabbi Matondo, Oscar Cortes and Vaclav Cerny in the last game.”
Clement will forever treasure last season’s triumph in this competition.
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That day Rangers won 1-0 against a very different Dons side to the one they lost to in midweek.
He then missed out on adding the Scottish Cup to his collection after they crashed to an injury-time goal against Celtic in the final.
Gers beat Well 2-1 at the national stadium in August in the first game at their temporary home while work continued at Ibrox.
But they were less than convincing that day and Clement will demand more from his side tomorrow.
He added: “We need to play a better game than we played at Hampden that day. I expect to see a better Rangers than we did in that game.
“Motherwell are a team with a manager who wants to play with five at the back, who changes things a little bit with one or two strikers who play offensively.
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“They create chances in every game and sometimes a lot of chances, but they can also concede.
“We need to play in a well-structured way by creating chances and not giving away too much. That’s always the aim.”
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