Philippe Clement insists he is too busy trying to fix ragged Rangers to think about his future at the Ibrox club.
The Gers boss was speaking after a 2-2 comeback draw against Motherwell at Fir Park saw the Light Blues fall 14 points behind William Hill Premiership leaders Celtic ahead of their meeting at Ibrox on January 2.
The Belgian was under pressure following the 2-1 Boxing Day defeat at St Mirren, where he described the first-half performance as unacceptable, but the first 45 minutes against Well were equally inept as goals from Apostolos Stamatelopoulos and Tawanda Maswanhise gave Stuart Kettlewell’s side a deserved interval lead.
Clement, who claimed tiredness, illness and injury had led to seven changes to his side, again had to use his bench for a reaction and half-time substitute Hamza Igamane scored twice for a draw but their title hopes remained in tatters.
Asked if he had any concerns about his position, the Gers boss said: “No, I’m not concerned about that because I’m only busy with the team.
“And we knew before the season what a challenging project it would be.
“It’s difficult to speak about that because you will not understand and people outside maybe will not understand but there has been an evolution made.
“Not in the last two games – we have hurt ourselves.
“But there were good games in the last couple of weeks where the team showed the potential.
“So, we’re taking steps, but you cannot speak about that after losing points against St Mirren and against Motherwell, I know.
“But we hurt ourselves. It’s avoidable individual mistakes and in those moments the opponent kills it off.
“We need to work hard to be much more resilient and determined in these defensive actions. That’s going to be one part of the game, but of course also with the ball.”
When asked if the board had indicated they would support him and if anything had changed, Clement said: “Yes, they made a really clear statement about that in the beginning of the season and now also with the people involved (new chief executive Patrick Stewart).
“Do you think with another manager we would not have made mistakes today defensively?
“Was it a problem that the structure of the team was not good? So, those are things that a board needs to decide.”
Well boss Stuart Kettlewell, recently back from a touchline ban, found himself sent to the stand by referee Kevin Clancy during a frenetic match.
The Fir Park manager claimed his side were hard done by with a booking to midfielder Lennon Miller for a foul on Oscar Cortes, and a goal chalked off by Clancy and confirmed by VAR when Gers goalkeeper Jack Butland punched into his own net from a corner under pressure from Tony Watt when it was 2-1.
Kettlewell, “immensely proud” of his team, said: “Again I’m just left bemused by one the on-field decision.
“For me, it’s complete over-protection of a goalkeeper.
“My frustration’s purely pent up from this is now going into the realms of five, six, seven weeks with key decisions that I believe are going against us.
“Some of them have been confirmed as wrong. It’s kind of a pat on the head, we’ve got that one wrong, we’ll move on to the next one.
“Lennon Miller goes into a tackle in the middle of the park, which results in an injury, believe it or not.
“But for me, to my eye, it’s what I would call a hook tackle. You get side-on to the player, you go to ground, which you’re allowed to do, come out with the ball, which he does, doesn’t come through the player.
“There’s a red card check within that tackle. Referee instantly books him.
“At this point, I started to become incredibly frustrated, because there’s Rangers midfielders that will be away with four or five, I think even touching six fouls in the middle of the park.”
