Clement lights the blue touch paper ahead of seismic Europa League clash against Mourinho as Rangers boss reveals he isn’t a fan of Champions League winner’s football philosophy

Now aged 62 and counting Fenerbahce as his 10th managerial posting, Jose Mourinho is still eminently capable of starting a fight in an empty house.

The chances of the legendary Portuguese striking a blow for diplomacy prior to welcoming Rangers to Istanbul for the first leg of their Europa League clash on Thursday week might be said to be somewhere between slim and zero.

Needing confrontation and a siege mentality to succeed as much as he’s ever done, perceived slights on him or his team are always manna from heaven.

Philippe Clement knows all of this. He also appreciates the scale of the task his players face if they are to advance to a last-eight meeting with Roma or Athletic Bilbao.

Which is why his reaction to being paired with the Turks yesterday was highly intriguing.

While Clement doffed his cap to the success Mourinho had enjoyed across his time in football, he made it abundantly clear that the defensive style his sides embrace simply isn’t to his liking.

The former Manchester United manager is known for his colourful antics on the touchline

Rangers manager Phillipe Clement has admitted he is not a fan of Mourinho’s style

Stopping just short of declaring that he wouldn’t open the curtains to watch it, the Belgian’s pre-emptive strike felt calculated and, for all the world, like something straight out of the Mourinho play book.

This seismic clash always had the potential to get the pulse racing. Clement’s early shot across the bows has kicked things off earlier than we’d anticipated.

‘Of course, he’s somebody who won that many trophies,’ he said. ‘So, there are different managers with different styles. He won a lot of trophies in a certain style.

‘I like even more managers with another style, but the respect is there. It’s about winning at the end and he did that at several places with several teams and winning the biggest trophies that you can win in the world.

‘So yeah, it’s normal to respect a lot somebody who did that.’

Pressed on what exactly it was about Mourinho’s sides that left him feeling cold, Clement replied: ‘He’s somebody who’s more in the defensive and reacting out of that style. 

‘I prefer more the managers, personally, who go full in their attacking force and playing out of that. But incredible respect in the way he did it. That’s just a personal preference.’

Fenerbahce would be tough enough opponents even without having such a commanding figure at the helm.

Rangers have had plenty to celebrate in Europe this season on their road to the last 16

Unbeaten in 15 games, they sit second top of the Turkish League and comfortably took care of Anderlecht over two legs in the previous round in Europe.

They boast a raft of stellar names. Croatian international keeper Dominik Livakovic, former Manchester City forward Edin Dzeko, and Fred, the

Brazilian who turned out for the red side of Manchester. There’s also the Serbian duo Dusan Tadic and Filip Kostic, plus Moroccan internationals Sofyan Amrabat and Youssef En-Nesyri.

Then you come to the manager. The only man to have won all three of the current European trophies and one of only six individuals to have won the Champions League with two different clubs, Mourinho’s record is indisputably that of an all-time great.

The seeded side in the tie, Rangers have the comfort of having the second leg in Glasgow. But the assignment remains formidable.

‘It’s an exciting two games, I think, that everybody is looking forward to,’ said Clement. ‘It’s a team with a lot of experience, a lot of quality, a manager with a lot of experience.

‘I know a lot of players also from the past so, yeah, if you see Dzeko, Kostic, Amrabat, Fred. Also some guys who played in France, like (Alexander) Djiku, who played in Strasbourg really well, (Bright) Osayi-Samuel, also a lot of experience, a long time there, the goalkeeper also from Croatia.

‘So, it’s a really good team. I think for Hamza Igamane it will also interesting to play against a really good Moroccan striker (En-Nesyri).

Clement was pleased to see his side get back to winning ways at Hearts last weekend

‘They also have a stadium with a lot of passionate fans like we have. So, I think everybody is excited for this game, that’s clear.’

It will be the first time Clement has come up against Mourinho. He knows this will not be dull.

‘I think you guys will like that,’ he laughed. ‘He’s going to give you a lot of material probably.

‘It’s not a personal thing, like I always said. It’s about the club, it’s about the players. So, I’m not so busy against which manager did I manage one moment in time.’

Even the prospect of Mourinho managing competitively in Glasgow for the first time wasn’t enough to knock other major developments off the agenda.

Two hours after being told on Tuesday that chief executive Patrick Stewart was still standing by him in the wake of the Queen’s Park Scottish Cup disaster, Clement learned that that wider picture around Ibrox may soon be radically changing.

With Paraag Marathe, the Leeds chairman and head of San Francisco 49ers Enterprises, confident of concluding a deal which will see regime change at Rangers, all bets are now off.

Clement, predictably, saw nothing to be gained from speculating about what the future could hold for him or the club if the deal goes through. And you suspect that will remain the case.

The Europa League is now Rangers’ only real chance of silverware after their Scottish Cup exit

‘Those are business questions,’ he stressed. ‘I’m here, like I said, for the sporting side and I will see in whatever moment in time, if things change in the club. But I’m just purely focused on the team and the performances. That’s my job.’

He certainly has enough on his plate in that regard. While the Fenerbahce tie is Rangers’ reward for an excellent league-phase campaign, Europe has also been a welcome distraction for their domestic woes.

Having lost the League Cup final to Celtic and with their rivals now a dot on the horizon in the Premiership, the Scottish Cup loss to a mid-table Championship side effectively ended Rangers’ domestic campaign in February.

A win at Tynecastle last week came despite a pedestrian performance. Another victory over St Mirren today won’t change much as far as the league is concerned.

Despite the bleak situation on the home front, Clement is adamant that the objective between now and the end of the season is unchanged.

‘To win every game,’ he said. ‘It stays the same. That’s the objective. Every time. So, it’s not going to be like putting everything in one competition and not performing in another competition. If you create that mentality, then you’re in the wrong place, and the future for the club would be really bad. It’s also totally not what I want.

‘I said from the beginning that I want to go in four competitions until the end. We didn’t reach that, clearly, with this cup game.

‘But that’s (the standards) I want. That’s what I demand every day. That’s what I demand every training. That’s what I demand before every game. So, we’re going to continue.’