Philippe Clement decision at Rangers leaves Jackson furious, ready to fight to make point
Philippe Clement playing Ross McCausland ahead of Ianis Hagi for Rangers has been “ludicrous”, according to Keith Jackson.
Speaking on the Daily Record Sport Hotline (2 October), Jackson slammed the Gers manager’s previous stance on Hagi’s involvement in the first-team at Ibrox, having dropped him to the club’s B side.
Hagi’s form for the reserves has led to Clement agreeing for the 25-year-old to return to the first-team fold [Rangers Review, 1 October], but Jackson didn’t hold back on the way Clement has treated the player.
He said: “You’re looking at a Rangers team that were reliant on Scott Wright, Rabbi Matondo; Kieran Dowell’s been getting games, Ross McCausland.”
“Are you telling me Ross McCausland has more talent than Ianis Hagi? Because we’ll have a fight about it.
“Hagi might not be a world beater, [but] for him to be wasting away when Clement was going to the well with these other guys – it’s been ludicrous from the start.”
Ianis Hagi can fly up the pecking order at Rangers
Of the four players name-checked by Jackson in his list of the options Clement has wrongly used ahead of Hagi, three still remain on the books at Ibrox after Wright’s Deadline Day exit to Birmingham City.
Matondo, Dowell and McCausland have all been in and out of the side so far this season, but none of the trio will be the first name on the team sheet in many fans’ first-choice starting XIs.
That opens the door for a fit and firing Hagi to make a big impact upon his return to the first team, and make the most of huge squad churn Clement oversaw in the summer transfer window.
While the likes of Nedim Bajrami will be expected to be very prominent this season, Hagi certainly has the ability to displace Matondo, Dowell and McCausland as one of Clement’s go-to options.
The Gers need all the firepower they can get if they’re to keep up with Celtic and Aberdeen at the top of the Premiership, and with Hagi in tow, they may have just gone some way towards bridging that gap.
In other Rangers news, Philippe Clement got animated in his post-match press conference after the win over Hibernian on Sunday.
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