Rangers Chief Financial Officer James Taylor has described the club’s aims to bring a £10m pre-player trading loss to £0 as “eminently achievable”.
The Rangers board member was speaking after the club’s latest financial accounts, which showed the Gers’ made a £250k profit post-player trading.
But with much scrutiny on Rangers’ stuttering player trading model – Chairman John Bennett calling for this to change when the results were released – cutting that £10m pre-player trading gap is essential.
Now, James Taylor has been discussing the situation in an exclusive interview with leading Ibrox fan media Four Lads Had a Dream.
James Taylor “excited” about Rangers financials
First touching on the positives, Taylor has praised Rangers’ commercial progress with the club’s revenues once again north of £80m.
The post-player trading profit of £250k is also evidence of a step in the right direction, the club making a profit for the second year on the bounce.
“On a headline level, we did generate an operating profit so we highlighted that at the time,” said Taylor. “It was a £250,000 operating profit post player trading.
“And I will make the distinction between post player trading and pre player trading quite a lot probably throughout this conversation.
“That £250,000 was the second consecutive year of operating profit and given where the club has been and where we are now, we have got to take that as a positive.
“Again, in addition to that, the revenue numbers were strong, they were above £80million again for the second year in succession and I think, for me, that is something we want to continue to build on, that we are certainly continuing to see growth in this year as well.
“We are quite excited by the continued commercial growth of the football club.”
Ibrox club ready to close £10m pre-player trading gap
James Taylor would then go into Rangers’ plans to close the £10m pre-player trading gap, claiming the club are determined to deliver sustainability at Ibrox.
With the Gers looking at how to make up the gap through commercial revenue or European football for example, it’s a mission the club are clearly determined to see through.
“The challenges around your point of where we look to improve, I think the chairman at the AGM was quite clear around the fact that pre player trading – and when I say that I mean before any player gains on sales are recognised and last year we had Bassey and Aribo to name two – and that is offset by player amortisation,” said Taylor.
“So any cost that is associated with the players cost goes onto the balance sheet and when amortise that over the length of the contract. Before we take those into account, there was a £10million operating loss at the football club.
“That is something that the chairman set out at the AGM and said he wants to go away and that is something that we as an executive team, as a board, as a football club as a whole, are determined to do over the next strategic cycle.
“There is a lot of work to do to bring ourselves forward and when we touch on some of the player trading aspects in terms of this conversation, people will understand why that is an important line for us, the pre player trading line. I am sure we will get into that.
“For me, as we move forward through this next strategic cycle, moving to a break-even point pre player trading is something that we feel is eminently achievable and is something we want to deliver.”
Please take the opportunity to read the full Four Lads Had a Dream interview with James Taylor, which also touches on FFP, player trading, and fresh investment.
