Given how much money Celtic tend to generate from player sales – and then re-invest in their squad – the prospect of Rangers emulating their spending in the transfer market may feel a little fanciful.
The Scottish Premiership leaders broke their transfer record twice in 2024, bringing in Adam Idah for a fee of £9.5 million before spending £11 million on former Augsburg playmaker Arne Engels.
Those, however, were deals largely financed by the mega-money sales of Matt O’Riley and Jota. Securing around £25 million for each player, O’Riley and Jota – now of Brighton and Rennes respectively – now rank as the most expensive exports in Scottish football history.
Philippe Clement could only glance enviously across the Glasgow divide, then, as Celtic invested around £30 million on new players last summer. His Rangers side spent around half as much, having made less in the last two windows through player sales than Celtic made when selling O’Riley alone.
Yet, while Rangers may not possess the same financial firepower, Clement still feels that Rangers should look to follow their rivals’ lead when it comes to building a squad capable of challenging on multiple fronts while rotating regularly.
- READ MORE: Rangers Transfer History 2016-Present
Philippe Clement wants Rangers to add depth like Celtic
“Credit to Celtic, who are very consistent with a squad that has been for years together already,” Clement told the media after Rangers stunned Brendan Rodgers’ team 3-0 at Ibrox some 24 hours earlier.
“They replaced one player from last season with two players.”
Clement, presumably, is referring to the way O’Riley’s exit accounted for the arrivals of both Engels and Paulo Bernardo.
“They spent £30 million to make the depth in the squad bigger and to have more possibilities to make rotation,” the Belgian adds.
“Last season, in December, when they had to replace a few players – with [Cameron] Carter-Vickers out, with [Reo] Hatate out – they also lost points along the way.
“They have been building in a longer term in that way. It’s now about us, if its possible to make this gap in the league smaller.”
This is not the first time Clement has spoken at length about the need for extra squad depth, and the importance of rotation.
The Rangers boss came under fire for resting the likes of Vaclav Cerny, Nedim Bajrami, Jefte and Hamza Igamane in December’s 2-2 draw with Motherwell. But, with the manager wary of burning out his star men during a gruelling festive schedule, perhaps the questions should not be aimed at the coach but the recruitment team.
On the positive side, Rangers stunning victory over Celtic – as one sided as the scoreline suggests – did indicate that this is a squad deeper and more talented than initially thought.
Ridvan Yilmaz was ‘excellent’ in James Tavernier’s place at right-back. Clement was full of praise for Liam Kelly and Robin Propper, meanwhile, the former keeping a clean sheet and the latter scoring his first Gers goal in the absence of Jack Butland, Leon Balogun and John Souttar.
Clement demands more of the same from Rangers at Easter Road
Clement is now hoping to see Rangers build on such foundations when they travel to Hibernian on Sunday.
“Every opponent has a different kind of playing football. [The challenge] is always different but it doesn’t mean we need to drop these points,” Clement explains.
“[Our recent slip-ups were] about individual mistakes we made. It was not about structure or [not] doing the right things as a team. It was about chasing the game.
“[We must learn] not to chase the game by getting in a rush, being calm and cool and doing what we’ve been doing to create the chances and then to be efficient with these chances. Those are things to learn.
“When you are young, you’re less in control. You’re in a rush when you need to solve something or you go behind. These are experiences they need to learn and its our job to help them in that way, with the experienced guys also.
“Every team becomes together by playing together and getting more experience together. The momentum of games you cannot predict but you can predict the playing style.”
