Rangers complete Stephan van der Heyden hire as yet more Ibrox arrivals to be completed
Stephan van der Heyden has joined Rangers as the assistant manager to new boss Philippe Clement at Ibrox.
The Gers announced the Belgian’s arrival in a statement on the club’s website on Friday (20 October) and confirmed that the rest of the backroom staff will be announced in due course.
The 54-year-old, who played in Belgium, the Netherlands and France during his playing career, previously worked with Clement at Club Brugge and was most recently the assistant manager at Kerala Blasters in India.
“I am looking forward to this challenge, it will be a big one, but I think it is a great club,” said Van der Heyden. “One of the most beautiful things about football is that you meet different people and different cultures, not only football culture, but cultures in general.
“One thing in common is the supporters, they all expect the best from the team. The first impressions are good, I’m sure we can do something here and we can achieve something together.”
Trust
It’s extremely important that Clement has got a man in alongside him that he can trust to help him turn things around at Rangers after replacing Michael Beale as the new boss.
The pair previously worked together at Club Brugge, so they will know what each other’s strengths are and how they can work together to get the best out of the players.
Van der Heyden has decent experience behind him as a player and coach, having worked for the best part of the past decade as an assistant manager at various different clubs.
The duo will now be in discussions around which players have caught the eye in training this week, as Clement prepares to name his first Light Blues lineup when they face Hibernian on Saturday (21 October).
He will be hoping for a strong showing from his players to build some early confidence and get his tenure off to the ideal start at Ibrox.
In other Rangers news, Ferguson was wowed by the result of a Gers grilling during their search for a new manager.