Clement takes inspiration from Man City Netflix doc as he watches Guardiola lift Treble after surviving shock defeats on the way

PHILIPPE CLEMENT has spent the little down time he’s had recently tuning in to the Manchester City documentary ‘Together: Treble Winners’.

It’s a title he would love nothing more than to emblazon Rangers’ season review when it finally hits the production line in the next couple of months. But the Ibrox manager is far too wise to get involved in any of that talk just now – especially after Sunday’s video nasty in Dingwall. Clement’s interest in the Netflix series is less in the conclusion – everyone knows that anyway – but far more in the detail that got Pep Guardiola’s megabucks side over the line in the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League. Not surprisingly, when the Belgian raised the subject with the media yesterday he was keen to highlight the rough moments and shock defeats that arguably the best manager currently operating in the planet and his superstar players suffered along the way.

The anger on the inside, the criticism from the outside and ultimately the ability to lift themselves off the canvas and get back in the fight almost instantly were points of particular relevance to Clement this week.

Basically, if it can happen to Guardiola, Haaland and Co then it can happen to anyone.

The aftermath of Sunday’s unexpected defeat at Ross County is still raw for Ibrox punters who fear the title initiative has swung back in Celtic’s favour ahead of tonight’s trip to Dundee.

But if Clement – who won two Belgian titles as a player with Club Brugge and another three as manager of Brugge and Genk – knows one thing it’s that no matter who you are there will always be ups and downs on the journey to glory.

He said: “It is the first time in six months I see my team like that. I was disappointed but every manager has these moments, even with teams that win amazing things. “I have been watching the series about the Treble of Man City of last year and I saw quite a few of those moments. “The most interesting thing from that documentary was after the great season when they won the Treble, you see they had up and down moments. They lost to teams – with all respect – like Southampton and Brentford.

“They got angry with themselves as top players being disappointed with themselves. “They then picked up again. “Therefore you also see the down sides and that’s one of the things that’s part of this job and part of this life. “It’s never only up the way. “In the end, people only remember the good things after titles. But I’ve been on that road so many times.

“I have already won titles but I can remember the difficult moments also. It’s interesting, I can remember one season at Brugge when I was a player when we became the champions.

“The next season the manager decided that every time we went on an away trip, he would show us the match on video on the bus, that same game the year before.

“And we would be sitting there on the bus, looking at the TV, thinking, ‘Wow.. we were really not that good – not as good as we thought!’

“That’s because when you win things you remember everything as being good.

“But football is never like that. It’s not 90 minutes of only good. Yes, that happens a few times in your career. But good things come with bad moments.

“So you need to react in a good way if things go against you. This team has gone behind in several games but we have come back with some spectacular fightbacks.

“That’s with the right mentality so that’s what they need to show against Dundee.”

The defeat in Dingwall means it’s just two wins from their last seven games for Rangers. But when asked if that was a concern the Ibrox boss launched a firm defence of his team.

He said: “No, that’s using the stats in the wrong way. That includes two games against Benfica – a really good team.

“So it’s incorrect information about how the games were played.

“Of course we were bad on Sunday, I was the first one to say that and the players also. We need to show another face tomorrow.”

On that point there have been questions asked of the mental strength and bottle of this Rangers side after failing to beat Celtic for a third time this season and following that up with the worst performance of Clement’s tenure in Dingwall.

But the manager said: “I saw where they were in October. They were on the floor.

“But I have seen what they have done in all this time and how many points they’ve taken.

“In that period they have taken the most points of any team in the league. Let’s not forget that after just one game.

“So, yes, the character is there. It’s just about showing it again and repeating it again. It’s about showing that hunger.

“They need to be focused for this game and keep the structure and organisation.

“But they are convinced about that so I don’t have any doubts – I have zero doubts about this game.

“If we would have won against Celtic and won against Ross County this would still be a challenging game to play.”