Philippe Clement was never a leading candidate for the Belgian national team, despite reports suggesting he would be.
That’s according to Het Belang van Limburg, who are keen to pour cold water on the idea after Clement pushed away the rumours on Friday.
The newspaper explains that while Scottish media was busy writing articles this week stating that Clement is a top candidate for the Belgian national team, and saying this was based on rumours in Belgium, the reality is quite different.
According to them Vincent Mannaert, officially the new sporting director for Belgium from December, is yet to make any such decision.
He is certainly scanning the market to see who could replace Domenico Tedesco but is yet to fully assess him or make a decision about his future.
Nothing has been decided in regard to Tedesco, who can still rescue Belgium’s status in Group A of the Nations League with a win in the play-off against Ukraine.
Mannaert is prepared to switch things up, if need be, but he has not decided to pluck Clement from Ibrox, and the Rangers boss is certainly not a leading candidate. The feeling is that at most he will have ‘sounded Clement out’.
The 50-year-old himself has insisted he is staying at Rangers, telling the media on Friday that he is committed to staying at Ibrox long-term and will not change his mind. He even made it clear that he didn’t want to be asked about the subject in future.
Het Belang point out that the recent promotion of Nils Koppen to sporting director at Ibrox should be seen as confirmation of confidence in Clement.
There seems to be a determination to insist that he won’t be leaving Rangers, and certainly isn’t the leading candidate for Belgium at this point.
