PHILIPPE CLEMENT has lit the blue touch-paper over Rangers’ weekend clash with Ayr United – and Scott Brown’s return to Ibrox.
The former Celtic captain and Aberdeen coach is now boss of the Honest Men and takes his team to the home of his former rivals on Scottish Cup duty.
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It’s the biggest match of his recent return to Scottish football – so far – and Brown’s former SPFL allegiances to Hibs, Celtic and Aberdeen have never really endeared him to the Ibrox fan-base.
Now Clement says he is all set for the clash against a coach he claims “doesn’t like Rangers very much”.
The Rangers boss reflected on a win over Aberdeen which took Gers level on points with Celtic for at least 24 hours with the Hoops facing Hibs on Wednesday night.
But he has previously stated he won’t look at a league table until MAY and is instead focused on the weekend clash with a familiar old foe for his club.
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He told Rangers TV: “I’m looking forward to the weekend fixture, yeah, of course.
“Again it is a challenge in a competition where it is in or out, against a manager that doesn’t really like Rangers.
“So it is going to be an interesting game to play.”
Brown has played down the significance of his own return to Ibrox – where assistant boss Steven Whittaker was a league and cup winner during Walter Smith’s reign.
He faced Gers 51 times as a player, winning at the ground seven times with Hibs and Celtic.
Speaking to the Ayrshire Post, Brown said: “It’s another game to me. We’ll prepare over the coming days and make sure we are ready.
“The lads have been brilliant since we’ve come in and are responding to what we want.
“I actually thought we played very well against Dundee United on Saturday and if we take one of our chances at 1-0 up it probably ends differently.
“But you can see the lads are taking things on in the way we want to press high and play with a tempo. We just need to be a bit more ruthless.”
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