Rangers boss Philippe Clement reveals he had to divorce his first wife because he was married to football

PHILIPPE CLEMENT admits he divorced his first wife because he was married to football.

The new Rangers boss revealed part of why they separated was down to her not sharing his winning mentality.

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Clement gave a fascinating insight into the turbulent relationship which ended ten years ago, as he compared it with his own coaching philosophy.

The 49-year-old firmly believes the drive and hunger to succeed should start in the family home.

Not one to settle for second best, the Belgian has since remarried, and is now hoping his recipe for success off the park will translate on it in Glasgow.

Clement said: “I don’t set priorities because I am someone who always wants to win.

“It’s the way I am. I had a lot of fights with my ex-wife about that. It was because of football.

“When my children were small and we were playing games, I never let them win because it’s against my nature. You need to deserve to win. You can’t get it like a present — not even small children.

“If you do, you don’t create the right mentality. She didn’t have the same idea about that.

“At the end, we separated when I stopped playing football and wanted to be a manager, first as the under-21 coach, together with being coach of the first-team defenders in Brugge.

“She wanted a normal life, with weekends and more time.

“She knew that would not be the case and that was when we separated.

“So it’s about football but it’s my passion. I have been lucky and later I met someone who understood my story.”

Whether Clement and Rangers are a marriage made in heaven remains to be seen.

However, Ibrox stars are in for a rude awakening when it comes to fitness, discipline, and eating habits.

They will be in no doubt who calls the shots, with the former Belgium international a stickler for detail and high standards of professionalism.

Asked if the players will accept him interfering with all aspects of their lifestyles, he added: “They need to. They don’t have another choice. It’s really simple, otherwise you cannot be a football player at a top club.

“If you don’t have the right lifestyle, you can never be a top player.

“Yes, you can be for a short period, but not for a long period. Then you don’t belong in a club like this.”

Clement’s methods clearly work, with a stellar career as a player, and three Jupiler League titles on the trot with Genk and Brugge, as evidence.

But he’s well aware there’s plenty of work to be done on the squad he inherited from Michael Beale.

With Gers still fighting on four fronts and likely to be playing three games a week for the foreseeable future it’s a tough task. But he’s not one to shy away from a challenge, though.

Clement said: “There are more things we must add than just confidence, but for sure it’s an important part.

“It’s a big challenge playing three games a week — but I like challenges.

“It’s not the first time. I went to Genk in December, when they were eighth or ninth in the league and we finished fifth.

“We got European qualification, and next season we became champions with only one new player in January the year after.

“I went to Monaco on the first of January and found 11 players injured there. In the first two months we had 19 Covid cases. So, it was all the time players in-out, in-out.

“It was a mess, trying to create a structure and a clear story for everyone because they were in and out.

“In the beginning, results were moderate. But at the end, when everyone was there, it was really good.

“In the first six months, we got the most points in Ligue 1, along with PSG. We went to third place, ten seconds away from second place.

“So it’s possible, but it’s a lot of work and you need the commitment of everyone — staff and players to work really hard in concentration, in lifestyle, in every detail.

“I will be on top of that and then we can make an evaluation in the next weeks and months.

“Who are the people stepping into the story and giving everything to get success for this club?”

Clement shared a Coventry City dressing room with Gary McAllister, Steven Gerrard’s assistant boss at Ibrox.

But he opted not to pick his old team-mate’s brain ahead of his switch to Glasgow.

He added: “No, because I want to make my own decisions.

“If people talk about their experiences, it’s always their story and what happened with them. And everybody’s different.

“I am not going to take a decision on what somebody else tells me.

“It’s always good to have information, I had some from Thomas Buffel, for example.

“But the most important thing for me was to talk with the people who are inside the club at this moment.

“How they think about things, how they want to do things, what they thought are not the good things that were happening.

“What they think are the problems with the club.

“I liked that they were really open and honest about that. I liked it because I am also a person like that.”

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