Philippe Clement: Quick Ibrox return for Rangers is 'possibility but not a certainty'

Rangers manager Philippe Clement is hopeful his side can return to Ibrox sooner than expected but says that remains “a possibility but not a certainty”.

Construction delays have meant that Rangers have been playing games at Hampden until their own ground is ready.

Ibrox chairman John Bennett had marked the Premiership match against Hibernian on September 28 as the target for their return, but had said that was “aspirational” with many fans fearing a longer spell at the national stadium.

Fresh reports had claimed that the team could actually be back at their home ground ahead of schedule, with the Premier Sports Cup tie against Dundee now earmarked as the first game back.

Clement said everything was being done to have Ibrox ready as soon as possible but that there were no guarantees about a date.

“Nothing can be confirmed until it’s sure but people are working really hard to make it as fast as possible,” the Rangers boss said.

“There’s a possibility in that way but not certainty.

“You don’t have everything in your own hands and in this case a lot of things not.

“All of the club has been pushing to make this transformation period as short as possible so that we can go back as fast as possible. And they are still doing it.”

While work continues to have the stadium ready, time is running out for clubs to finalise their squads for the tests ahead, with only a week remaining in the transfer window.

Defender Ben Davies is close to a loan move to Birmingham City but Rangers are keen to move on Ianis Hagi and Todd Cantwell among others and need players to leave before they can bring in new recruits.

Clement is hopeful that can happen before the deadline but admitted it wasn’t easy to improve the squad.

“It has to do with money,” he said. “It has to do with high wages from the past and replacing them with players with lower wages and like this to do something for now and for the future of this club.

“I think the most important thing for any club is to get the right players in, to get the right quality.

“Everybody in the club is working really hard on that every moment that they are awake. Same thing for me.

“It’s busy weeks and you get a lot of players to look at for recruitment, until very late in the night.

“That’s our job but we want to get people in who can raise the quality, otherwise it’s no use. Everybody is working hard on that.”