Clement needs Koppen to sanction January transfer gift to save his Rangers job
Philippe Clement needs Nils Koppen to sanction the transfer of at least one centre-back in the January transfer window for his Rangers team.
That’s because, now that both John Souttar and Leon Balogun are out injured, the Belgian has been left in something of a pickle.
The Gers were already fairly light in terms of depth at the centre of their defence with the Ibrox outfit having just three senior centre-backs on their books, while Neraysho Kasanwirjo who can play there is also out for the rest of the season.
Of course, Dujon Sterling can be deployed there but it still feels rather strange that the Belgian didn’t try to recruit an additional head in the summer.
As Balogun was dealt his injury blow in Rangers’ shock 2-1 defeat against St Mirren on Boxing Day, it feels like a solution needs to be found rather quickly and, with the January transfer window now just around the corner, it feels like recruitment could be their answer.
Nils Koppen needs to sanction the arrival of a centre-back to Rangers
Now that Nils Koppen has been promoted to the Gers’ technical director, it’ll no doubt be partly down to him whether or not the 50-year-old gets the money he needs to strengthen his ranks.
Of course, the three injured defenders will all come back at some point but if a crisis such as this one occurs again towards the latter end of the season, they won’t have a get-out-of-jail-free card such as the January window and will have to rough it out.
While Rangers’ title hopes may well be out of the window after their 2-1 loss to the Saints, stranger things have happened in football and if Clement can get his team back to winning ways, they could be in with a shout as the end of the campaign comes around.
Although no players have yet been concretely linked with a switch to Ibrox, it feels like it’s only a matter of time before some names start to pop up and potentially turn around the fortunes of Clement and his men.
Indeed, for Clement his job could depend on it. If Koppen rubberstamps it at least having strength in central defence will mean he has a fighting chance to ensure he can save himself in the long term.
In other Rangers news, Scott Allan has blasted some “shocking” footage he saw from the Gers’ 2-1 defeat to St Mirren on Thursday.
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