PHILIPPE CLEMENT wished ailing chairman John Bennett well after he was forced to step down for health reasons.
Bennett has been replaced by ex-director John Gilligan while he recuperates.
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And after the 1-0 win over Dundee United Clement said: “It’s not something you want, of course.
“I heard about it from John during the week, he explained everything to me.
“It’s not his decision, it’s a medical decision and it’s with a lot of pain in his heart that he’s had to do this.
“I wish him all the best to recover as fast as possible.
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“He won’t be away, he’ll be there but at a distance. But he needs to keep that little bit of distance to recover first.”
The Ibrox power vacuum means Clement is the most visible figure at the club following Bennett’s enforced absence and Chief Executive James Bisgrove’s exit.
He said: “I think until now I’ve been the only one talking on the outside.
“So that doesn’t change too much – maybe it will change next week, we’ll see.
“I’m not the guy who brings the cash into the club. My job is to get the best out of the players who are in the building and to make the right decisions with the budget we have.
“That’s my job and I’ll continue in that way.
“But I had a lot of talks before with James and with John about strategic things for the future of the club, to make things better in the club and in Scottish football.
“I think that will continue with the new people who step in.
“I haven’t felt any pressure because of it. There’s nobody putting more pressure on myself than me.
“I want to win every game, I hate to lose.
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“So I hated the last game and I wanted there to be a reaction from the team.
“But it’s also my job to keep everything calm at the right moments.
“In the past, I could go on the pitch and change things but that’s not the case anymore.
“But I believe in the potential of this squad. It’s not the easiest thing with the situation we had with seven players going out of the building for zero pounds, replacing them and then adding strength to the squad.
“That was a very difficult thing to do.
“But everybody in the club did the maximum to do it in the best way in this window and we’ll continue to improve things in the next window.
“It’s good now that people can finally the potential of some players, the way that players like Hamza Igamane came in.
“I understand people from outside saying, ‘why do they take a guy from Morocco who never played in Scotland or at the highest level?’
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“We had to do it now because if it would have been a year later, we could never afford that kind of player.
“He’s coming straight out of Moroccan competition, Moroccan culture.
“Everything is new for him.
“But he’s a big talent and I think people saw some things today and it can only improve because they’re all young boys.
“Same with Jefte. He’s only 20. People maybe forget that.
“So we have a lot of young potentials and it’s now for the staff to work really hard to improve them week by week, month by month.
“That will see us grow and become stronger – that’s logic for me.
“Nedim is another who’s just in the building.
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“He had two short sessions with the team and he doesn’t know all the names of his team-mates.
“But we know what kind of player he is, what he can do for the team.
“He showed some things, but he can show much more in the future.”
Loan wide man Oscar Cortes was hooked at half-time at Tannadice but Clement insisted: “It’s just building him up step by step after his injury.
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“That was the plan before the game. It’s normal after an injury like that and a long time out that he could do those minutes.
“It was important for him to start the game because it’s different to start. That was the next step in his rehab.”
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