Philippe Clement is determined to finish what he has started. The decision to take on this project at Rangers was his. The call over whether he is man in charge at the end of it won’t be.

Talk of a brighter future and success in the months and seasons to come is irrelevant right now at Ibrox. Clement is surviving and fighting on a game-to-game basis and every 90 minutes shapes his outlook.

Victory over Motherwell in the League Cup semi-finals will buy him breathing space, but only until his side face Olympiakos on Thursday evening. After that, the visit of Hearts rounds off a defining seven days.

The international break offers Clement a chance to reflect. For many supporters, it gives the board a chance to make a change. Rangers find themselves in the same situation for a third successive season. If history repeats itself, Clement will have no future at Ibrox.

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The comment and criticism directed towards the Belgian has ramped up in the aftermath of the defeat to Aberdeen on Wednesday evening. Clement’s post-match interviews only added fuel to the fire, while his press conference on Friday would have done little to win over his doubters. He remains convinced, though, that he is the right man in the right place.

“It's part of my life,” Clement said when asked how he deals with the scrutiny on a personal level. “It's part of football. It's also difficult as a manager that you cannot explain everything. It's not good, but it's part of my life.

“I stepped with my two feet really clearly in June into a project that I knew it was maybe the biggest challenge ever with this club, with the expectations here, with everything around to step in that kind of project. But I did it with my full conviction and my full passion for this club. So that's what I'm going to do also the next few months.

“It's always the story afterwards. Then you can say these things. And I believe that in the short term, we can turn things around and also this can be a really successful season. I believe that.”

It was indicative of the situation that Clement finds himself in right now that almost 20 minutes elapsed before the match with Motherwell was mentioned when he sat down with the media on Friday afternoon. His position is under scrutiny from supporters like never before, yet he revealed he had not held discussions with the board over his future and he spoke about still being invested in the project that he reaffirmed his commitment to when he signed a new contract at Ibrox in the summer.

This job is his ‘passion’ and he expressed his ‘love’ for the club. Clement does not leave his work at the door when he steps into the house. He does, however, seek perspective from those whose opinions he values and advice he trusts.

“No, but it's never the case,” Clement said. “It has never been my life to switch off. I don't like that too much, to switch off. My wife knows that.

“Of course, she likes it more when we win games and when everybody's happy with me and that I'm a really good manager. That's normal. But no, I don't want to switch off.

“I always [speak to people]. Yes, with friends who are in football, in this job, with other colleagues, with my staff, with my family. I always do that in every moment. Yeah, I think it's important also not to stay in the tunnel. I want a really open vision about everything.”

When Clement replaced Michael Beale as manager last October, he laid out a vision that saw him set his sights on the Premiership title in the months that followed. When he put pen-to-paper in August, the goals related to the here and now and the long-term future.

(Image: PA)

Clement is the public face of a club that is in a state of flux and period of uncertainty once again. Questions over the direction on the park will only be answered by results and performances. Off it, Rangers need appointments to provide stability and vision.

“I'm very determined about it,” Clement said of his eagerness to see the Rangers rebuild through. “And I know also this moment I'm the face of it. There’s nobody else talking or there's nobody else explaining things. So that also creates everything towards me.

“I'm very determined to make it really successful because this club deserves that. That was the main reason to change things. This club didn't want to make the same mistakes as in the past it has made to always look only short term.

“There was only one possibility to look long term in everything you had to do — in making choices in transfer window also to make it sustainable and secondly to create profit for the future, because otherwise this club would come in difficulty. So that's the first step made now.

“There are some steps made along the way in performances. It's not that we lost all the games or all the games were terrible also, but we need to make things better the next weeks and the next months because we want to reach our goals and that's competing for everything.”

Events at Hampden will determine if Rangers are competing for the first silverware of the season or not. Defeat to Motherwell is unthinkable for Clement and his players but Rangers cannot be considered overwhelming favourites given their recent troubles.

The manager will not be changed before kick-off. The personnel on the park could be. The way that Clement sets his side up will be the same as it has been throughout his tenure.

“Changing the formation in this moment, I think it will only create more doubts,” Clement said. “How are you going to change the formation if you can train on that for one time? How are you going to train on that in how you build, how you create chances, how you defend? Everything in a session of one hour?

“You can build on things. If you have some foundation, if you have something solid, you can build on the next step. We're not that far yet with the group to do that in this moment. It's a difficult one to turn that around in one day.”