Rangers chairman John Bennett has bit back at suggestions there’s been a lack of investment at Ibrox.
The under-fire Gers supremo stayed true to his promise to give a steely address to supporters this week as chaos envelops the club before a ball has been kicked this season.
But between the Copland Stand fiasco, the club’s CEO jumping ship, and a rebuild which is taking it’s sweet time, John Bennett insists the board have already backed Philippe Clement.
The Rangers manager is clear there is still plenty of transfer work to be done but in the meantime, Bennett claims the Ibrox shareholders have been fronting the cash to make positive inroads.
But just where has the £11.5m the Rangers chairman has already handed to Philippe Clement gone?
Bennett: Clement given £11.5m already
Between the first two windows at Rangers, Bennett claims that Rangers have backed Philippe Clement and Nils Koppen with a whopping £11.5m already.
And that’s before any loan players.
In quite astonishing figures which are likely to rise as the window progresses, Bennett made clear the Belgian has been backed despite the rebuild being a bigger job than anyone had imagined.
Years of squad mismanagement have seen Rangers lose several once key first-team players for nothing whilst overpaying for crocks and dross continues to limit the club’s options.
“There’s often talk about the phasing of buying and selling,” Bennett told RangersTV.
“If you actually look at the facts, not just in this window, but prior to this window, how has Rangers operated?
“And I want us to get away from how we’ve operated but how we’ve operated has been the board has essentially backstopped each window.
“If I take 2024 the January window and this window, excluding loans, we’re double digit millions in commitments, in transfer payables.
“Excluding loans we’re about £11.5m in thus far on transfer payables, and loans, they’re not free.”
Who have Rangers signed with money?
Since Philippe Clement came into Rangers, the club has made six permanent signings.
Mohamed Diomande heads that list, with Rangers forking out around £4.3m (Sky Sports) to Danish club FC Nordsjælland to sign the Ivorian permanently this summer.
The club then stumped up somewhere in the region of £400k (Rangers Review) to sign Brazilian left-back Jefte from Fluminense.
Rangers have also spent £1.7m (Foot Mercato) to sign Moroccan talent Hamza Igamane from FAR Rabat, although the striker is not yet ready to make his mark in Glasgow.
Assessing the rest of the fees is where things get a little tricky.
Whilst Clinton Nsiala (AC Milan) and Liam Kelly (Motherwell) joined on free-contracts, the costs involved between agents and signing on-fees are not included in reports.
Rangers are also set to head to tribunal with Aberdeen over Scotland U21 midfielder Connor Barron and it remains unclear how much will have to be stumped up for the player.
For argument’s sake, let’s say a fee in the region of £1m will probably be viewed as fair.
That means Rangers have spent around £7.4m on their six permanent signings so far this window.
But when you include the loan-to-buy for Oscar Cortes, which will see Rangers sign the Colombian winger permanently from RC Lens next summer, it is closer to the fee mooted by Bennett.
According to Chris Jack and the Rangers Review, Rangers have already agreed to pay around £4m to complete the deal for the Colombian at the end of the season.
By our count, that’s around £11.4m already pledged to Clement’s Ibrox rebuild and it’s a figure which is expected to rise in the coming days and weeks.
