Philippe Clement didn’t miss John Nelms when the Rangers manager was asked about the current state of the Dundee pitch.
With the Gers still hoping to play their penultimate Scottish Premiership match before the league splits this coming Wednesday at Dens Park, the situation is a hot topic.
Even with Rangers preparing to face off against Old Firm rivals Celtic, the looming spectre of Dundee’s shoddy surface made its way into the pre-match press conference.
This comes after a very public fall out from the suggestion this afternoon’s match with Motherwell was under threat.
Now, despite the latest images of the pitch at Dens Park not exactly inspiring confidence, the game is ON.
Dundee v Motherwell pitch row settled
Let’s go back to the beginning.
Rangers had their Scottish Premiership clash with Dundee suspended before the international break due to the state of the pitch at Dens Park.
Rangers, furious that they first found out about the game being under threat when their linesman arrived at the stadium, filleted Dundee come full time.
Nonetheless, Dundee managing director John Nelms came out fighting and asked why the game couldn’t have been pushed back.
“The pitch if we are on a three o’clock match would probably be playable,” claimed Nelms.
“We just ran out of time. Would it be playable by noon? That’s debatable. Would it playable by 3? Absolutely.”
Despite the defiant comments, this was Dundee’s fourth Dens Park call-off of the season with the Motherwell match potentially set to be their fifth.
Philippe Clement in John Nelms dig
With the Rangers game looming large, Philippe Clement has taken aim at those comments from John Nelms and going by the state of things today, the Belgian didn’t miss.
Tongue-in-cheek, Clement claimed he was “surprised” to hear Dundee’s clash with Motherwell was in jeopardy because the pitch is apparently supposed to be tip top.
The Rangers boss, amid the distraction of the situation, also claims that he is simply focused on Sunday’s Old Firm clash with Celtic.
“(It) would be a big surprise if its unplayable because it was a good pitch I heard a few weeks ago,” said Clement. “I am busy now with the Celtic game and if I’m busy with that, to arrange other pitches, I’m not busy with that because that’s work for the groundsmen and other people to do that. I am only busy with Sunday’s game.”
Now let’s just see how this Dundee Motherwell game pans out with the situation holding quite the potential for high drama in midweek.
Meanwhile, here’s every word from Philippe Clement ahead of the visit of Celtic.
