Rangers interim chairman John Gilligan has insisted the club is backing Philippe Clement and he believes Celtic can still be caught in the league.

The former Ibrox director came in as stand-in chairman after John Bennett stepped down last week for health reasons.

To help the club close the five-point gap to Brendan Rodgers’ side - along with Aberdeen who are also on 15 points after five games – Gilligan has revealed more funds will be available in the January window without the need to sell players.

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Gilligan told Sky Sports News: "We have to take one step at a time but ultimately we have to win the league.

"Yes, definitely [we can challenge Celtic and Aberdeen] because of the manager and the players we've brought in. The fact is we're a strong team and week to week, we're playing games that we should win and we can win.

"Why not? You have to have that belief. If we start to doubt that and have that disbelief, then it will start to go through the whole place. We can't have that."

On Clement, he said: "It's been difficult for the manager and it would be silly to think otherwise. Putting my supporter's hat on, the word 'patience' is not something football supporters are very good at, but I would ask the fans to be patient.

"The manager has brought in some good, exciting young players. He's trying to take the age of the squad down, trying to get the trading model correct and I think this is the moment where we hopefully back the manager.

"I'll put myself on the line here and say we are backing this manager. This man has made a lot of changes in the background, we're starting to see that coming and we just look forward to the weeks and months ahead."