When Jefte was sent off for Rangers against Dynamo Kyiv, Philippe Clement virtually waved goodbye to the sort of budget that would have given him a fighting chance in the transfer market.
The manager knows the size of the task at hand and the need to get players off the wage bill, but it becomes a lot harder when the only way to get your own players in is to sell others first.
Players on big wages who have been underperforming, is it any wonder it has been a struggle to sell them?
Finance expert makes Rangers transfer claim after Champions League blow
According to football finance expert Adam Williams speaking exclusively to Rangers News though crashing out of the Champions League shouldn’t have an adverse impact on the immediate plans of the Gers boss:
“The Europa League is worth about £25m less from the off, so it will have an impact on their recruitment budget.
“But the board will have budgeted for that and will have been operating on a worst-case assumption as far as this season’s budget is concerned.
“Had they qualified for the next Champions League stage, the budget may have been scaled up accordingly.
“Revenue when they reached the group stage in 2022-23 was about £84m. It was higher than that in 2021-22, when they were in the Europa League, but they reached the final that year.
“There isn’t really another season in recent years that we can draw a direct financial comparison with because the last times they had an ‘average’ campaign in the Europa League was affected by the pandemic.
“But for what it’s worth, I don’t think this will necessarily affect Rangers player trading model in terms of sales. Those were going to happen anyway, and Rangers aren’t now suddenly in a position where players they had expected to keep now have to be sold.
“The club have lost a lot of players for free in recent years whose resale values were once high.
“They must be conscious that they can’t carry on like that in future, especially when their revenue prospects, because the significance of Champions League qualification, are pretty volatile.”
Nothing changes with Rangers in transfer stale mate
Williams is right. There will be no fire sale or urgent need to fill a financial black hole by selling someone like Jack Butland, a player who the manager has said is indispensable.
There is a lengthy list of players who weren’t good enough last season or the season before and need to be sold.
That list hasn’t changed.
The more money Rangers can bring in, the better, and what the Champions League would have done, would have given more leeway in terms of negotiating fees for players being sold.
Philippe Clement inherited this squad and with it, inherited the problem of having a high wage bill with too many players sitting on the bench or in the stands on salaries that should be allocated to starters.
Take individuals like Ben Davies (£4m), Rabbi Matondo (£2.5m), Ianis Hagi (£3m) who decent fees were paid for and add them to Todd Cantwell, Kieran Dowell and Tom Lawrence.
That is a lot of money in terms of fees and wages sitting in these six players.
Lawrence has played almost every minute, but his contribution has been minimal in terms of goals or assists from the key number 10 position.
Clement will have money to spend but he won’t be able to spend it with the squad in this condition, he should also be given what comes in before the transfer window shuts.
Rangers may have been dumped out of the Champions League, but nothing has changed.
This doesn’t make the job any easier though.
