A quiet dinner with his loved ones has pre-match potential and work in the gym is a certainty.
It’s a ritual he once bypassed in his nascent managerial career, and soon regretted. It’s a lesson the Belgian heeds. When Clement feels the pain, the burn, he feels refreshed and ready to go. The gym is his sanctuary, his “running away space”.
“My head is also full with football. It is my life, it is my passion. I do not feel like the gym distracts me, just for me it helps. They say a good mind needs a good body.
“And I felt it before. There was a while when I forgot to do it. When I look back it was a mistake. It did not make a huge difference but still it did, so I took that lesson. That is the only thing. For the rest, football is always in my mind.
“For me the gym is the place where I can really free my mind and focus on that. And I feel better afterwards when it hurts, when it burns.”
A natural leader with authority when he steps into a room, Clement has made managing Rangers look straightforward, no mean feat. His professional approach has impressed players, staff and the media enough that it feels like he’s been destined to take such a demanding and high-profile job.
Talk to the man himself and his story is less straightforward. Before he became a boss seven years ago with Waasland-Beveren in his native land, he intended his career to be spent cultivating Belgium’s next generation of stars.
“I started my career as U21 coach in Bruges,” he recalls. “I had just stopped my career as player to do that and I thought: I’m going to do that for the next 30 years. It’s my passion to develop young guys.
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