Rangers: Clement on wingers’ return, Cerny, academy players & ‘usafe’ pyrotechnics

Wingers Oscar Cortes and Rabbi Matondo have returned to full training following injury.

Clement indicated lowering the wage bill and squad age contributed to the club taking in just £810,000 for the sales of five first-team players in the summer.

Rangers “need” to sign players like Vaclav Cerny on loan as the money to buy him outright was not available and Clement hopes to lower the reliance on loan deals in future.

“He loves it here,” Clement said of Cerny and added: “He told me last week that he never felt better in his career.”

Clement believes the Scottish game would benefit from clubs like Rangers fielding their academy players in the second tier, like in Belgium, Croatia and the Netherlands.

The manager urged supporters not to light pyrotechnics at matches, suggesting fines for such incidents may reduce funds available to the first team. The club have been charged by the SPFL after flares were let off at the League Cup semi-final win over Motherwell. “It’s not safe,” Clement said of fireworks. “It doesn’t help in any sense towards the team.”