The Scotsman

Rangers will look to edge one step closer to the last 16 of the Europa League as they welcome under-pressure former Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou and his Tottenham Hotspur team to Ibrox on Thursday night.

Scheduled to kick-off at 8pm, the home side find themselves in a strong position in the Europa League table, and currently occupy eighth position after winning three of their opening five games in the competition.

Sitting just one place behind them with an identical record are this week’s opponents Tottenham Hotspur, but they’ll arrive in Glasgow under a cloud after back-to-back defeats to Bournemouth and Chelsea in the English Premier League left some fans calling for a change in head coach.

The home side will be without Danilo and Ianis Hagi for the game. The pair have made positive contributions in the last few domestic games, but are ruled out of the game due to not being included in Rangers’ Europa League squad. Philippe Clement has other injuries concerns ahead of the game too, though his opposite number Postecoglou could be without eight first-team players for the game.

One of the most highly-anticipated games of the season, The Scotsman has all the latest injury news ahead of clash:

Midfielder hopes to be involved in Euro tie

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Teenage Tottenham Hotspur sensation Archie Gray is salivating at the prospect of facing Rangers next month.

Spurs are due at Ibrox on Thursday, December 12 for a Europa League tie, and Gray - a boyhood Celtic fan - has already earmarked the date in his calendar.

The 18-year-old made a big-money move to the Premier League giants, managed by ex-Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou, during the summer from Leeds United, with the majority of his appearances this season for Tottenham coming in Europe.

Gray’s father Frank and uncle Eddie both played for Scotland, but the £30million man is set to represent England after being capped at under-21 level, although Scottish fans may get a view of him when his team travels north for the Rangers match.

The player has already attended an Old Firm derby as a fan and on the prospect of facing Rangers, Gray said: "Especially watching Celtic and supporting them a little bit you always look for the Rangers game. The chance to play at Ibrox is a special thing and I can't wait for it.

"I have been to one (Old Firm) and it wasn't at Ibrox. They're brilliant games and I love them every single time. Even on TV they're just as good to watch."

Spurs have won their first three Europa League matches against Qarabag, Ferencvaros and AZ Alkmaar, putting themselves in a strong position to qualify. They face Galatasaray in Istanbul next Thursday.

Rangers, meanwhile, are in Piraeus to face Olympiakos next week. The Gers have defeated Malmo and FCSB, but lost at home to Lyon.

Hutton recalls his first interactions with Postecoglou - and he is delighted with Spurs work

Alan Hutton has revealed that he is a fully paid-up member of the Ange Postecoglou fan club as the former Celtic manager prepares to start his second season at Tottenham Hotspur.

The London club travel to face newly promoted Leicester City on Monday night with Postecoglou aiming to improve on last term’s fifth-place finish having added £65 million striker Dominic Solanke to the ranks from Bournemouth.

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Hutton is a former Spurs player but his admiration for Postecoglou pre-dates the Australian joining the London club and can be traced to a Celtic v Rangers game. The one-time Ibrox full-back was taken aback by Postecoglou’s warmth. The then Celtic manager stopped to chat while current Rangers players streamed past Hutton at Hampden.

“I genuinely liked the guy,” he said. “Honestly, he was such a lovely guy. I worked with him a couple of times with Premier Sports. It was either in the semi-final or the final, but when he came out with his team he was obviously concentrating on his team. But he came straight over to me and said, ‘Alan, how are you doing? Nice to meet you’.

“By the way, I had never spoken to him before this. I thought, ‘Alright!’ The Rangers team just walked by me and never said anything. I started speaking to him about Alistair Johnston, who had just come to the club to replace Josip Juranovic. I said to him, ‘What is he like?’ He said, ‘Alan, he’s just like you. He likes to get up and down, he’s aggressive’. I thought, ‘How does this guy know me?’

"He took that time out of his day, which was such a big occasion, to come over and talk to me at that moment," continued Hutton. "I thought, ‘I love this guy, but I should really hate him at this moment in time’. When he left and joined Tottenham I thought, ‘It’s alright, I can like him now!’”

Postecoglou has stayed true to his ideals even in the highly competitive Premier League, sticking by the gung-ho tactics that earned him success in Scotland with Celtic. His commitment to attack and a high line was questioned by some pundits, who scorned such a set-up. They stressed that while such naive tactics might have worked in Scottish football, they were foolhardy in the extreme in the so-called best league in the world.

Hutton, a co-commentator for Premier Sports, begs to differ. He knows how much entertainment is valued at the North London club, with Postecoglou certainly delivering on this count.

The Australian also annoyed some fans by chiding them for their small-club mentality because so many wanted Spurs to lose to Manchester City and nix Arsenal’s chances of winning the league. Others, including Hutton, praise Postecoglou for telling it as it is.

“I love listening to him, I must admit,” said Hutton. “I really enjoy his interviews and everything that he does. The way he looks at football is very gung-ho – full-backs up and in and playing with No 10s. It is brilliant to watch..."

Hutton would prefer it if Postecoglou considers making some concessions when coming up against the best teams in England, having learned what he has in his first season.

“Sometimes I do think to myself that you need a Plan B,” he said. “We watched Ange up here and he very rarely changed. Down there he has very rarely changed no matter who they are playing. When you get to those final big moments, when you are in a final or are chasing top four, do you have a Plan B? Moments when you say, ‘Well, we want to attack, but we are playing Man City so we can’t be as open as this’. I think there is probably a happy medium there. But he will know better than me.”

Oyegoke came up against Spurs many times as a youngster and is relishing a reunion

Wednesday night's match between Hearts and Tottenham Hotspur is marked down as a pre-season match, but new Jambos defender Daniel Oyegoke offered some friendly fire to the north-London opposition in the build-up.

Oyegoke, a 21-year-old who can play right-back or centre-half, has reason to relish coming up against Spurs. The defender spent four years in the Arsenal youth academy and played many a derby against the Gunners' fierce rivals. He then moved on to Brentford before making the permanent switch to Hearts this summer on a three-year deal.

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A cheery and confident chap, Oyegoke smiled and laughed when the prospect of taking on his old adversaries was mentioned. “I faced them quite a few times," the England Under-21 internationalist said. "We used to beat them up! It was always a good fixture for us.

“They tried to tell us the importance of the derby when you are young. I’ve never really liked Spurs, so hopefully we can try to beat them up again!

“I wouldn’t say I was an Arsenal fan. I wasn’t really a fan of any team, I just loved my football. I went to Arsenal from Barnet when I was about 14. It was good for me and my development as a footballer.

“I joined as a striker or a winger, but quickly became a right-back or centre-half in my first year. That was the best thing for my development, as soon as I became a defender I started to get involved with England at youth levels and pick up a lot of experiences.

“I look at my time there very fondly. I made a lot of friendships and connections with people who helped me along the way. It was a good club for me.”

He will come up against some past acquaintances at Tynecastle wearing while. “Oliver Skipp is a good few years older than me but I caught him when I was playing for the 21s," revealed Oyegoke. “Dane Scarlett, who is there at the minute, is a really good friend of mine. I’ve got quite a few friends there as I live near the area.

“They have a good team. So do we though. It’s a game we’ll use to build our fitness and, yeah, hopefully beat them up!

Oyegoke got the best education at Arsenal, playing under a number of world-class managers and coaches. “I joined at the end of [Arsene] Wenger and then it was Unai Emery," explained Oyegoke. “It went on to [Mikel] Arteta. Obviously I was quite young but I spoke a lot with Arteta. I was involved in pre-season games with them, training and stuff. I had quite a few sessions with him.

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“He’s obviously a great coach and you can see the detail he likes to go in to, you can see it coming out now in the way Arsenal play. It was good to take what I could from him and hopefully bring it here."

Oyegoke got his first taste of Tynecastle in Saturday's 2-1 defeat by Leyton Orient and is set to battle it out with fellow new signing Gerald Taylor for the right-back slot this season. The Costa Rican is expected to feature against Tottenham, with Lawrence Shankland and Zander Clark also back in the squad.

In celebration of Hearts’ 150th year, the Gorgie outfit welcome English Premier League giants Tottenham Hotspur to Tynecastle for a glamour friendly on Wednesday evening.

The first time the sides have clashed in 13 years, when the two sides were drawn against each other in the UEFA Europa League. It was a tie which Spurs won 5-0 on aggregate, thanks to a first-leg demolition in Edinburgh.

Goals from Rafeal Van der Vaart, Jermain Defoe and Jake Livermore put the visitors into a commanding lead after just 30 minutes before strikes from Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon ensured the North London side would qualify for the next stage with consummate ease. Hearts would perform admirably in the second leg, drawing 0-0 at White Hart Lane - but the damage was already done by that stage.

While the 2011/2012 season started with the this heavy defeat, it would end in glory for Hearts as they lifted the Scottish Cup at Hampden Park, defeating rivals Hibs 5-1 at the home of Scottish football.

The two managers will meet up once more when Spurs travel to Tynecastle

Hearts' bond with Tottenham Hotspur goes way back to the days of Dave Mackay in the 1950s and 1960s.

Mackay, one of Hearts' greatest players, was sold to the north London outfit in 1959 for £32,000. The Scotland international went on serve Spurs with distinction for nine seasons and the two outfits have shared a close link ever since. They most recently met in 2011 in the Europa League and will do battle again at Tynecastle on Wednesday night as part of the Jambos sesquicentennial celebrations.

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The men at the helm of the current version of Hearts and Tottenham share a close relationship, too. Steven Naismith and Ange Postecoglou only came up against each other once in Scottish football at the tail end of the 2022/23 season, but they have stayed in touch ever since. The Australian boss has offered Naismith advice since he became permanent Hearts head coach and been supportive of the young coach's work.

"The way he plays was different and it gets you intrigued," Naismith said of Postecoglou, who won five trophies in two years at Celtic and guided Spurs to a fifth-placed finish in the Premiership last season. "You definitely learn from that.

"My experience of Ange was when I was caretaker with Hearts. We played Celtic on the day they could win the league and he didn't really need to give me much time of day, but he did. He made a point of it before the game and was very complimentary.

"He had never met me. He probably asked a few people around at Celtic who had worked with me at Scotland. After the game, again he was very complimentary. He just said if he could ever help, he will be in contact.

"Then he texted me randomly out of the blue. He didn't need to give me that time of day, he never knew if I would become the manager here or not. For a young coach, that's invaluable to get somebody of his experience to lean on. Fortunately, I have done that since then."

Naismith likes how passionate Postecoglou is for football general, but also his support for the Scottish game. "He's got the players' backs and the managers' backs," continued Naismith. "I think he has a good understanding of the game. He's got loads of knowledge and experience.

"The biggest thing that comes to mind for me is his calmness. At the start with Celtic, he was getting hounded by everybody but there was a calmness there and that helped him to be successful in Scotland - and also in the tougher moments with Spurs.

"I think he appreciated what the product is in Scotland. Not everybody appreciates what it is but it does have a lot of talent in it."

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Naismith is expecting some of Spurs' bigger names to make the journey north, with English playmaker James Maddison and new signing Archie Gray potentially in attendance.

"I think there will be quite a few of their bigger names, just by going off the internationals and what were teams were at major competitions," he added. "The quality will be at a high level. Defensively we will need to be switched on, that's a big area we will be focused on. Ange's teams are always through of energy so we will need to deal with that."