Philippe Clement will want to improve the quality of his Rangers squad in the next two transfer windows, not only that, but he will want to move on players who aren’t contributing too.
Earlier this week John Bennett spoke about how the money spent in the summer won’t affect the Gers boss’ ability to sign his own players and the addition of Nils Koppen will be a massive help.
What was also interesting was the chairman’s comment about out of contract players potentially leaving the club which would give Philippe Clement a hefty chunk of the wage bill to redistribute.
Philippe Clement has Rangers contract decisions to make
Rangers News has already covered the seven players who could leave at the end of this season but how much could the manager have to play with if he manages to sell a few fringe players too.
First of all, who are the key and fringe players who could leave and what are their salaries, according to Salary Sport?
Kemar Roofe £26,000 per week.
John Lundstram £22,000.
Dujon Sterling £22,000.
Borna Barisic £21,000.
Keiran Dowell £16,000.
Over £100,000 per week and £5m for the year.
Three of those players never make any meaningful contribution and, in Lundstram and Barisic, Philippe Clement has two players who earn a lot of money and play in key positions, but Rangers need better.
So, do Sterling and Dowell, if they are sold, need to be replaced? No, because we have Adam Devine, Alex Lowry and Bailey Rice in the squad who can provide the back-up that they are currently offering.
Roofe needs to be replaced with a more reliable striker and so would Lundstram in midfield
You can argue about Ridvan Yilmaz being trusted more but, if Barisic leaves, we still have an international available for selection in that position but, more depth would be needed.
By my maths, Philippe Clement could be given £100,000 per week out of his budget to find a striker, central midfielder/deep-lying playmaker and a left back for Rangers.
If Nils Koppen lives up to anywhere near his reputation, we should be able o find guaranteed quality and starters for that sort of money.
We need quality, not quantity.
