Rangers’ Viaplay Cup success is a sign that Philippe Clement’s vision is working

Rangers manager Philippe Clement with the Viaplay Cup

It is long understood that Cup Finals are invariably a nervy business, and Rangers’ Viaplay Cup showdown with Aberdeen yesterday never looked like re-enacting the Hampden epics these sides enjoyed in the 1980s.

Full throated and taut it may have been – until relief and redemption arrived in the shape of James Tavernier with the only goal of the game.

The Ibrox captain has endured the best and worst of times in his long association with the Light Blues and, in a sense, this was a seismic reward for his response to new standards quietly demanded by Philippe Clement. Tavernier, holding the cup – Rangers’ first in this competition since 2011 – into the skies of Glasgow’s south side, the snapshot to vindicate radical change installed by the manager, who has made a superb impact in the Scottish game already.

Aberdeen sought their first trophy since the League Cup itself in 2014 – but there was to be no light in the north for Barry Robson’s men.

‘Dreich’ – that lovely, old-fashioned Scots word for a maddening, incessant drizzle, was an apt description in the build up. Rangers’ success, crucially, is a reward for the club’s executive decision-making.

The appointment of Clement to replace Michael Beale a couple of months ago was a matter of urgency for an outfit drifting from stalled ambition, never mind the prospect of keeping pace with Celtic. The landscape is altering. You can feel it.

Now, this initial trophy of what should be quite a few under former Bruges coach Clement, is a giant help to Rangers and their collective self-esteem. The first cup is the deepest for Clement and an Ibrox support whose showy, colourful, bombastic celebrations were not just centred upon