Clement on Hagi transfer, Cortes injury and 'two' recruitment plans

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Has Oscar Cortes travelled?

No, he didn't travel. He had a scan and he will be out for around four or five weeks. It was a really unlucky fall in the duel, and his knee was twisted. So, yeah, it's an unlucky injury, nothing to do with load or whatever, just an unlucky collision with the player.

It must be particularly frustrating for him because he had that unlucky injury before last season, so it must be difficult for him as well. How is he taking it?

Yeah, of course it's a hard blow for him, for the team, because he was coming back and he's going to become an important player for the future of the club. He has a lot of quality, he showed that last season, he was hungry to come back, he was on his way back, he was not at his best yet, but he showed already promising things again. So, yeah, it's a blow, but it's part of football. It's not only with Rangers, it's in every club in the world. You can have bad collisions, you can have those things. You need to live with that and make a fast rehab. Everybody's working hard on that. I think also the quality in our rehab is better than we had last season. So, yeah, he's going to come back and he's going to be important this season, but we're going to miss him, of course, in these important weeks. 

Is Robin Propper fit enough to start?

He's fit, but of course you come in and there's a lot of things to do in that moment. I think Brexit didn't help in that way, and I know from experience, you have to fill in so many papers to come into Scotland and to live here. You need to find a house and you need to find a school for your kids. There's a lot of things going on in his head also this last week, because he's just a few days with us. So that's something to take into consideration for the game tomorrow. It’s the same thing with Vaclav. He had a four-week holiday and he has now had four days of training with us. So it's with them looking at what is the right moment to start with him, what is the right moment to let him come in.

No concerns in your own mind if you had to play them tomorrow night?

No, no, no concerns about that. Vaclav showed it already against Hearts when he came in. So No, no concerns about that.

How important is qualification for the Champions League? In terms of finances, do you have two scenarios if you reach the Champions League, in terms of transfer, and if you don't reach the Champions League? 

Yeah, of course, it's a big world of difference. But you cannot count on that. It's a long road to take. It's four really important games that you need to win or to qualify in. So it's a big road. So let's focus now on the first leg and to get a good result towards the second leg and to focus all on that. That's what we need to do now and not to look where we are in September. It's now the beginning of August. We need to get the best out of the situation now. That's very important. It could really vary what you're trying to do at the end of the window. That's why you need to be prepared for the two scenarios. Also in your talks with players, it's really clear that in some cases it's only possible when you get Champions League money. But like I said, if you see all the teams that are playing to qualify for this, there's a lot of quality in that. So we need to be really top in the four games to qualify. We know that.

You had some great moments in Europe as a player and as a manager. Given the circumstances of the squad and the changes you've had to make, how big an achievement would it be if you could take that squad to the group stage?

I believe we have all the quality to do that. It's about finding the right balance. It's about taking the moments. Mentally-wise, they are ready, I feel. It’s about taking experience together with some new players coming in and then doing the right things. You play against a team, and I know them really well because I played them, I don't know how long ago it was, four or five years ago. We qualified against them with Club Brugge, also in the qualifiers for Champions League. I see a lot of players still here who played for them that day. They are really a team that has been building for years together with their automatism. Those are things we are doing now. You saw, for example, in the preparation, that in moments with young players you need to get experience, new players need to get automatism. You saw it against Hearts, where our second half was much better than the first half. We learn again from that to become better. That's what we are going to need in this game also.

What have you worked on over the summer to make your players belief they can get to the league stage?

Yes, but it's about believing in your qualities and working hard and creating automatism, that the structure is really clear for everybody. You can play out of that, with and without the ball. What we've been doing last season also. Of course, because of a rebuild and you lose several players, and also in the core of your team, you need to rebuild new things. That takes a little bit of time. That's why it's important to have experienced guys like him, in the squad and on the pitch, to help the players around him.

Is Ianis Hagi in your plans this season?

No, we had clearly talked with him before the pre-season already, and with his agents, about that. We need to look, like I said, at a lot of things with the club, about wages, about how many players you can have in a position, with the budget we have, and to get a budget to make transfers. It was really clear that the idea is to sell. That's what he wanted also. So, that's the clear situation.

When you're building a team, and you're so early in the building stage, is there an argument for maybe it might be OK to be in the Europa League? We hear this debate all the time about the Champions League being such a high level. Do you want to go to the top of the Champions League?

Of course we want that, and we're going to do everything for that. But the Europa League is not a disgrace, for sure. It can be really nice, like we saw last season. We were really close, very close. It was a small detail that we went out against Benfica. They sell now a player for almost 100 million. It was a really good team that we played against, and the team played two really good games against them. So, it was a nice journey in the Europa League. But of course everybody wants to be in the Champions League. For the club, it would be a big difference, for the players also, because they get better paid in the Champions League also, so they like that more. And it's the biggest stage in the world, so you can play against the best players in the world. But I think all the European competitions evolve that much that also in the Europa League, you have really, really big games. Even in the Conference League, at the end stage, you can have really big games. So, playing in Europe is always exciting, but of course everybody wants to go to the Champions League because it makes a big difference financially, and you only have top games there.

How is it to find the balance when facing a team like Dynamo who score a lot of goals?

Yeah, these are different games to the normal league game that we have, where you have the domination, where you have the ball most of the time. And even though we didn't play a good first half against Heart, we were  still at 63 per cent of the ball possession. That's really difficult against Dynamo, because they're really, really strong on the ball and holding the ball and making good combinations. So, it's another level, it's a different style of playing, and that's really interesting now. To challenge, that's why we wanted also these kind of games in our preparation, to play against teams who are strong in those things, to get the experience already with the boys. Otherwise it would be too much of a surprise. So, I don't expect us to have 60 per cent of the ball possession tomorrow. We don't need it. We come in for a result, not only to have the ball.