Kevin De Bruyne ‘won’t accept Philippe Clement at Belgium’ after Rangers latest
Kevin de Bruyne would not accept Rangers manager Philippe Clement as his national team boss with Belgium due to the football his side have been playing, Si Ferry has suggested.
There has been some speculation that the 50-year-old could leave his role at Ibrox to take charge of his home country, with Domenico Tedesco currently under pressure in the role.
Vincent Mannaert, who has previously been a mentor and chief executive to Clement, has been made Belgium’s technical director, to add fuel to the fire around these rumours.
Clement has now insisted that he remains committed to his current role in Glasgow despite those links, but it has been suggested his candidacy would have met with resistance from Man City star De Bruyne.
Speaking on the Open Goal podcast about those links between the Rangers boss and his national team, Ferry said: “If you think, like De Bruyne’s got a massive say at Belgium hasn’t he, and I can’t imagine De Bruyne looking at a Rangers game and going ‘that’s how I want to play football’.
“Because he was quite vocal about the last coach, about the style of play that he played. So how likely is this to happen?”
James McFadden replied: “It’s the connection with the Technical Director at the Belgian FA, that’s why the links have come out, because they’ve worked together.”
Rangers performances unlikely to make Philippe Clement an appealing national team manager for Kevin De Bruyne
Football Insider Opinion
The argument that Clement is not the sort of manager the Man City midfielder would want to play for at international level does feel like a valid one.
It has been a pretty disappointing start to the season for the Gers under the 50-year-old, with the club well off the pace of not just Celtic but also Aberdeen in the Scottish Premiership table.
There have been some disappointing results, and even in victory performances have not exactly been convincing, coming at a rather pedestrian pace.
A number of Rangers fans have been critical of Clement’s decisions, so the start to the season at Ibrox has been far from pretty.
Someone like De Bruyne, who is so used to success and intricate football at club level under Pep Guardiola, is therefore unlikely to want to have that sort of experience himself when playing for Belgium, especially with few good years left.
It may even be the case that lukewarm reactions to the exit links such as these, may have motivated the 50-year-old to stress his commitment to his current role, rather than look for that international move.
Those Rangers supporters may therefore have to accept that Clement will be remaining in the dugout at Ibrox for a while to come yet.
In other news, Todd Cantwell has dropped a hint over a potential future return to Rangers.
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