Philippe Clement warns Rangers stars he won’t accept hectic festive schedule as an excuse

Philippe Clement admits he’s no fan of Rangers’ relentless winter workload - but insists he won’t allow that to be used as an excuse.

The Ibrox boss knows his team are being pushed to the limit by the gruelling calendar enforced upon teams across the continent this season by UEFA’s new look European competitions. Gers were able to rest and recover from their Hampden heartbreaker in the Premier Sports Cup final as they enjoyed a rare free midweek.

But they won’t get another until the first week of February after SPFL bosses were forced to scrap the annual January shut-down. In the meantime, there will be no time to catch breath as Rangers prepare for a lung-bursting run of 12 back-to-back fixtures.

That hectic schedule starts with the Boxing Day trip to St Mirren and also includes a huge Old Firm showdown with Celtic on January 2 and key Europa League clashes against Manchester United and Union Saint-Gilloise. But Clement doesn’t want to hear his men complaining.

He said: "This is the first time in the history of football that this has happened, for everybody, so we need to have a squad that’s physically but also mentally ready for that. So the more you complain about that, the more you give excuses — and I don’t want to give excuses to the team because they all want to play football, they all want to win things.

“So this is the situation. It’s like running a marathon but only wanting to run 20 miles. That doesn’t happen. Those are the rules, that’s what was decided. Is it good for football? I don’t think so and everybody agrees with that. But we need to focus on ourselves and be ready. And in that way it can be an advantage for our group of players that there needs to be a rotation.

"It means everybody has to be on