Rangers trail Celtic by six points in the Scottish Premiership with two games remaining - anything other than a win against Dundee will hand their Old Firm rivals the title; watch the action from Ibrox on Sky Sports on Tuesday night; kick-off 7.30pm
Wednesday 15 May 2024 11:12, UK
Philippe Clement anticipates a "big" rebuild at Rangers this summer - but insists there is "not a big gap" between his side and champions-in-waiting Celtic.
Rangers were left six points behind the leaders after Saturday's 2-1 defeat in the Old Firm as midfielder John Lundstram was sent off.
Rangers have suffered three defeats and a draw in four games this season against Celtic - Clement was in charge for the most recent three - and play the Hoops in the Scottish Cup final on May 25 with a clutch of players including Lundstram, Borna Barisic, Kemar Roofe, Ryan Jack, Leon Balogun and John McLaughlin set to be out of contract afterwards.
Clement insists he will make radical changes on and off the park in time for next season - with injuries also an area he wants to address.
John Souttar, Tom Lawrence and Dujon Sterling sustained knocks at Celtic Park to join Goldson, Balogun, Lundstram (suspended), Oscar Cortes, Rabbi Matondo, Abdallah Sima, Danilo and Bailey Rice on the unavailable list for the visit of Dundee on Tuesday - live on Sky Sports.
He said: "Part of the story is that we played against Celtic with all their players available while we were missing nine players.
"If we are both fully fit there is not a big gap. But we need to prove that in the results against each other.
"Every team in the world, if you have nine players who are possible starters who are not available, it is difficult.
"Tomorrow we have 11 missing and that is a major thing that we need to change for next season. We need to make the foundation of the house stronger.
"There is going to be a turnaround in the squad, that is clear with all the end-of-contract situations and maybe others also. It is going to be a big one, it is going to be quite a rebuild.
"You want to keep the foundations of this season. You don't want to start from zero. So we need to find the balance and bring in assets and experience in, if experience is leaving the building.
"The club know how necessary it is to do that.
"We are working hard on that and I see the recruitment team are really busy finding the good profiles for next season, but now the next three games are important.
"But it is not only recruitment, in other departments we need to make good decisions because we cannot have so many injuries. So we have to rebuild something there.
"There are several things that need to change but I prefer to keep that in the building and make it better.
"Maybe it was better not to wait until the end of the season to make decisions around that (injury story) but you give chances to people."
Despite the title race being all but over, Clement has told his Rangers players he wants to see "winners" in the remaining games - starting on Tuesday in their final home match of the season.
"It's not only about the cup final. It's about your pride, your honour and it's for your fans and your club," Clement told Sky Sports.
"Players need to react after disappointment because this is the part of the season where it happens much more, all over the world in all the competitions.
"You have teams getting to finals and losing because this is the final part of the season, but it doesn't mean if you lose in one way that you have to throw away everything.
"You always have your pride to play for. I want to see winners, winners never give up. They can be disappointed afterwards, and they need to be, but we need to react strongly. That's the way I want to see it."
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