Philippe Clement said Rangers faced a “crazy situation” as they prepared to travel to Dundee still unsure whether Wednesday night’s game would go ahead.
The cinch Premiership clash at Dens Park was rescheduled after it was contentiously called off 90 minutes before kick-off last month, but fresh doubts have now emerged on whether tomorrow night’s match can be staged as planned due to the condition of Dundee’s playing surface. Saturday’s match against Motherwell required two inspections before referee David Dickinson deemed the pitch playable, but with rain continuing to fall on Tayside and more forecast in the build-up to kick-off, Dundee face a race against the elements to get the match on. A pitch inspection has been called for 11am on Wednesday morning.
Dundee managing director John Nelms told Sky Sports he was as “confident as we can be” the Rangers game would go ahead but pointed to April 16 or 17 as a contingency plan – which comes after the scheduled league split after gameweek 33. With so much uncertainty, Gers boss Clement – whose side will leapfrog Celtic at the top of the table with a win – would prefer an early decision and said he was comfortable with the game being switched to a neutral ground to get it played before the split
“In these circumstances it can be a logical choice,” ”said Clement in his pre-match broadcast press conference. It is a crazy situation in a top league that you don’t know the day before if the game is on or not. So that is a really weird situation. Okay, it can happen in extreme circumstances, but I don’t think it has happened in the last few years in all the top leagues. But now there is a problem every time it is raining in Scotland and it’s not that there are normally a lot of sunny days in Scotland.
“It is a bad situation for the league and for Dundee themselves, I don’t think they are happy with the situation. I haven’t seen the pitch, but it was clear when we were there the last time that it was dangerous for both sides and it was not playable, but I am not the one who decides, it is the referee who decides. I want a decision today because you want to prepare, but both clubs and the league are in talks about that.
“If it is not possible you want to see what the alternative is. We don’t have much time because there is a split in the league. These things give a bad image to the league and it needs to be solved. If you want to play in Dundee next week, what is going to happen if it rains next week? Strange for me because every time it rains there is a problem.”
As his squad got ready to travel to their hotel near Dundee on Tuesday afternoon, Clement asked for a decision to be made the day before the scheduled kick-off. He said: “If we cannot play tomorrow, when are we going to play? Thursday? If it is Thursday I would like to know today so we can train tomorrow.
“If the decision is made tomorrow evening, we have one afternoon, evening in a hotel near to Dundee for nothing. I understand that games are cancelled in the last minutes, last hours in special weather circumstances, but this is something that is repeated every time it is raining so I think you can make an assessment today.”
In terms of team selection, Turkish left-back Ridvan Yilmaz remains out with a knock and midfielder Ryan Jack had had a setback with a calf problem that could end his season. Clement said there was a “big chance” long-term absentees Danilo and Oscar Cortes would not return before the end of the season.
“Ridvan is still missing, yes,” said Clement. “Not long term. But he is not fit for this game. It is a matter of days so not weeks. It is not going to be many weeks but is it now in a few days or after the weekend, we will see. That is difficult to predict now.
On Jack’s condition, Clement commented: “That’s a difficult one. He was on a good way back last week but then he felt again a bit so we are looking now at other solutions to get him back. We lost some time there so we will see. It’s week by week looking at the situation and looking at solutions. It’s a problem with his calf and it’s something that’s been there for years. It’s something that needs to be solved well. I’m not a manager that wants to get a player back for one game and then he’s out for three months or he has a risk for the rest of his career.”
Clement was also asked about Danilo, who has a knee injury, and Lens loanee Cortes, who is out with a thigh problem. “I think there’s a big chance that the season is finished for them but you never know if they’ll be ready for the last week,” added Clement. “For them, it’s really are they going to be ready for the last part of the season, it depends if you play a cup final or not and we’ll make an evaluation at that moment. It’s around that period that they will be fit again so it’s difficult to speak about one week or two weeks according to that. We have to see the situation with the squad and how they are.”
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