Leon Balogun makes admission on Rangers career after starring under Philippe Clement
Leon Balogun admits he thought his Rangers career was as good as over until Philippe Clement replaced Michael Beale in the Ibrox dugout.
The experienced defender went two-and-a-half months without featuring for the senior side before being brought back in by Clement.
Balogun has now started back-to-back matches under Beale’s successor and performed superbly in those wins over Dundee and Hearts.
While falling short of taking a swipe at Beale, the Nigeria international is grateful to have been given a look-in by Clement.
“He’s very demanding,” Balogun said of Clement, as per Glasgow Times [7 November]. “If you look at his stature and his presence, it’s different and that is not a dig at Micky Beale. They are just two completely different characters and he’s got everyone on their toes.
“I am coming off the back of some quite tough weeks shall we say. I found myself out of the active squad, not the whole squad completely. So to come back from that I am just really, really grateful. I am so happy I was able to capitalise on my chance. I’m just looking forward.
“Of course, it was a predicament where you start to think, ‘I’m a bit on the older side now, so I have seen pretty much everything’. I did think, ‘okay, yeah, let’s see how this goes’.”
Stepped up
Balogun’s chance arrived when John Souttar and Ben Davies were ruled out of the Scottish Premiership clash with Dundee, which the Gers won 5-0 with their best performance to date under Clement.
The Belgian then decided to stick with Balogun and Connor Goldson in the heart of defence for the 3-1 Scottish League Cup semi-final victory against Hearts – a decision that paid off.
On the basis of those performances, Balogun should have retained his place for Thursday’s (9 November) crucial Europa League showdown with Sparta Prague, but he has not been named in the Gers’ European squad.
Having returned to the club as a free agent in the summer, after just one season south of the border with QPR, it appears that Balogun’s second spell in Glasgow now has lift-off.
Had Beale selected him more often, then the Englishman may well have still be in charge at Ibrox.
In other Rangers news, a player has given an honest verdict on the chants he heard at Hampden Park at the weekend.