New Rangers technical director Nils Koppen found himself under the spotlight as the Ibrox club held their AGM in Glasgow.
The Belgian has been in charge of overseeing a dramatic squad overhaul at Rangers, which has seen several high-earners leave the club to be replaced with youthful gambles.
It’s all about Rangers getting more bang for their buck, with young, hungry talents more likely to bank the club big in the transfer market – but only if they’re successful at the Light Blues.
But there is one damning statistic which has come out of the Rangers AGM and is making headlines, as Koppen’s role as technical director is examined by fans.
It comes with the Belgian clarifying just how much the club has cut from its wage bill from last season and just how much the Gers raked in on transfer fees.
Nils Koppen: Rangers have slashed £6m from wage bill
Ibrox technical director Nils Koppen unveiled a special graphic to shareholders during the Rangers AGM.
In it, the Rangers director detailed the scale of the club’s cutbacks in terms of wages and salaries in the playing squad from last season.
A total of 16 players left Rangers, with the club bringing in around 12 players on permanent and loan deals to replace them.
Amongst that number includes high-earners with low sell-on value such as John Lundstram, Connor Goldson and Borna Barisic.
In total, Nils Koppen claims that Rangers have cut around £6m from their annual wage bill with the exits of several high-earning first-team players.
It comes with Rangers substantially reducing the average age in the squad and increasing ‘asset value’.
Between the incoming and outgoing players at Rangers, Koppen has cut the Gers’ wage bill from circa £41m per annum to around £35m per year.
Rangers player trading return on five players criticised
The other headline-grabbing statistic that surrounds Nils Koppen’s role at Rangers from the AGM involves player trading.
As chief financial officer James Taylor was grilled on the club’s financial results, the Rangers director essentially blamed poor player trading for the figures.
”Clearly there is a significant loss in player trading,” said Taylor.
“We’ve taken moves to reduce the players’ wage bill so we have a more sustainable club moving forward.”
Why the wage bill is so important is because Rangers will find it harder to shift ageing players on bumper deals if the players cannot secure wage increases elsewhere.
Rangers will then need to incentivise transfers with lower fees in order to shift high-earners off the wage bill, as happened this summer.
Remarkably, Rangers confirmed that between all of their summer sales, the club only raked in £810k in sales.
That’s between Connor Goldson, Todd Cantwell, Sam Lammers, Scott Wright and Robby McCrorie, who all left the club permanently whilst in contract this season.
It’s a damning statistic, especially when you consider reports suggest Rangers paid a combined £8.2m to sign these players and incorrectly claimed we’d made a combined £3.7m selling them.
| Player | Reported transfer fee paid (club) | Reported transfer fee received (club) |
| Connor Goldson | £3.5m (Brighton) | £1.4m (Aris Limassol) |
| Todd Cantwell | £1.5m (Norwich City) | £500k (Blackburn Rovers) |
| Sam Lammers | £3m (Atalanta) | £2.5m (FC Twente) |
| Scott Wright | £175k (Aberdeen) | £300k (Birmingham City) |
| Robbie McCrorie | £0 (Academy) | Undisclosed (Kilmarnock) |
| TOTAL | £8.175m | £3.7m |
Nils Koppen has also been speaking about the need for better player trading at Rangers as criticism continues into his promotion and the Belgian’s record at Ibrox thus far.
“I think the most important thing was to create value inside of this team,” said Koppen, as quoted by the Rangers Review.
”I think that’s the most important principle that we had to implement.
“So for us, these principles are key in the recruitment strategy and the windows to come and to be sustainable, consistent, willing, and non-negotiable.
”We have to have a young and dynamic team with a good balance to compete at all the levels required in European and domestic leagues.
“There’s a big demand to dominate in the league, to progress in Europe, and to really compete in Europe.
”It’s really what we try to achieve by getting this squad in the best possible balance.
”We need players that are technical, good athletes, players who are cost-reliable because we’re in a unique environment, we play a lot of games, so we have to be ready for that.
“It’s a very unique setting that we cannot find in the rest of Europe.
“In addition to the young players, we also need leadership experience to guide these players on and off the pitch, to give them the best opportunity to develop and create an ideal team to also be able to win in all circumstances.”
