Philippe Clement knows that his side needs to start winning and winning fast in the Scottish Premiership, but the Rangers manager is confident his squad are in the very infancy of a journey that will only get better.

Rangers suffered a 3-0 Old Firm defeat before the most recent international break and sit five points behind Celtic after four games. While their squad was strengthened with the deadline-day additions of Neraysho Kasanwirjo and Nedim Bajrami, the club's plans in the market were limited by an inability to move out the extent of players previously hoped.

Speaking ahead of today’s trip to Dundee United, the Belgian manager reiterated the reality of a “difficult exercise” to rebuild the first-team playing squad this summer and add value for the future simultaneously on a limited budget. While emphasising that there will be bumps on the road and leadership gaps to fill, Clement shut down any negative theories about what another poor result could do to fan sentiment.

“If seven players leave for zero pounds, it creates a hole in your budget. So you need to replace them with seven players and you need to pay to get the same as what you had before,” he said discussing the summer transfer window.

“And then you need to add also value to your squad. So it was a very difficult exercise for everybody; for the recruitment team, for the board, budget-wise to do that in a good way. That's the reality of this moment. On the other side, we had several players leaving the building who played a lot of games in recent years and were important for the team like John Lundstram, Borna Barisic and Kemar Roofe. But they were all over their best period. So it's a new cycle, you need to bring young players in who can add value for the future but they need to perform directly also.

Clement admits this summer's window proved difficult (Image: Craig Williamson - SNS Group) “There were a lot of circumstances not making it easy to have a really easy transfer window. I would have preferred to have the same team and then to add two or three quality players, to grow out of that. That was totally not the case. It's the beginning of a new team in many ways and everybody in the building understands that.”

While many have already accepted that the league title will not change direction this season Clement is looking only at the short-term. However, he did accept that tensions will be high among a strong travelling support in tomorrow's lunchtime kick-off who want to see signs of a project they can buy into and a Rangers team they can believe in.

“No, that's a really negative question. I don't think that way - I think about winning,” he said when asked if he’d considered the consequences of not picking up three points in Tayside.

“We have 43 games [at least] to go. And it's about going into every game to win these three points. Now, next week, next month, the next month. There's never a moment that it's good to lose points in this race.

“I think some [fans] will be maybe more tense. It was the same way when I came into the building in October, or even worse at that moment, I don't know. I cannot control what people are feeling or doing at that moment. I need to be busy with the team and see that [the fans] have a team on the field that from the first second wants a die for the shirt.

“Every game is super important because you can never lose points. You can never lose games. Or almost never. Maybe if we go to Man United, people will understand although we will go with ambition there to win also.

“That's also the things the players need to embrace. That's also the things that I need to get into the heads of all the players who are new here. All these young players to learn these circumstances, to learn what it is to be a Rangers player.”

Clement highlighted one individual who’s ticked all of the recruitment boxes so far in Connor Barron. A 22-year-old who arrived at Ibrox for a tribunal fee and has quickly become a key figure in the centre of the park.

“I see a lot of positive things in Conor Barron,” he added.

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“From the first moment that Connor stepped into the building, I saw he is really somebody who wants to take responsibility. He wants to show quality every second and every training and every game. Connor has also the mandate from me to be demanding towards the rest of the team in that way, so he will grow in that role.”

Clement believes that Hamza Igamane is ready to make his mark in Glasgow after a slow start following his move from Morocco. Igamane’s first minutes arrived in the closing stages of the Old Firm defeat and with Danilo again set to be sidelined due to a knee issue the 21-year-old is Clement’s only striking option beside Cyriel Dessers.

“He can be good in possession, but he's also somebody with a nose for scoring goals,” Clement added.

“He's shown a lot of good things these last two weeks and the weeks before also. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been given the chance. It's now about bringing him physically to a good level. I'm very confident that he's going to be a huge asset for this season and years to come.”