Philippe Clement drops smirking Rangers one liner over hungry stars as three traits key to catching Celtic

Philippe Clement has responded to a Rangers title hunger question with a smirk as they look to go top for the first time under his reign.

A win by three goals or more against Ross County on Wednesday night will put them first ahead of Celtic on goal difference. They are unbeaten in 2024 and progressed to the Scottish Cup quarter-final with a 2-0 win over Ayr at the weekend.

Clement was asked at his pre-match press conference about how hungry his squad were, and he delivered a quip with a smirk. He said: "Until now, very. We need to keep it that way. It's important we don't give them too much food, they stay hungry!"

Clement also named three traits he feels are key to winning a league title. He added: "To be ambitious, to be consistent, to be hungry, to be united. In Belgium, we had a really special system, I don't know if you guys know that, because we have playoffs there and the system changes every few years.

"Normally it's 10 games so the first six play against each other home and away but the points are divided by two so we had a season where we were 20 points in front of the rest before the playoffs. So we start the playoffs with 10 points and we lost the first game so it was seven points and we went from 20 to seven in one day.

"That was special to keep everyone calm in the club so it's interesting and these dynamics are really interesting. Until now, I'm really happy about the focus of my team and they understand that just the next game is important.

"I think it's around 14 weeks still to go and if our season is exceptional, it will be 24 games in that period plus two international games for the internationals also. So it will be almost a game every three days so we need everybody ready.

"It's crucial if you are to win things, sometimes it's a player who may only have been on the pitch five minutes that can be the difference between winning a trophy or not. We are preparing everybody to be ready for the story so that's why you need to make changes also."