Phil Clement has admitted that the Ibrox Tribute Act is in a difficult financial position.
Behind the hype and hysteria that greeted the initial results generated by A Proper Football Manager the club is carrying an amazing wage bill that looks certain to finish the season in second place in the SPFL.
Last summer the Ibrox board threw everything and more into Micky Beale’s recruitment strategy but by the end of September with three SPFL defeays from seven matches and failure to reach the group stage of the Champions League it was time to recruit a new manager.
Clement pipped Frank Lampard for the job, got the team into the last 16 of the Europa League and lifted the League Cup but there was no January warchest to take the title from Celtic.
True Blue Lawrence Shankland was out of Clement’s price range with Mohamed Diomanse brought in on loan with the promise to pay Nordsjaelland £4.5m in the summer.
Most bears would have preferred the guaranteed goals and commitment of Shankland but it looks like Clement will have to be creative and imaginative this summer despite the expectations of a clear out and substantial rebuild.
Discussing the latest overhyped starlets from Murray Park Clement told the Daily Record:
They have been training a lot with us to get the principles, to understand the demand in the first team. We are busy with this programme to get integration into the first team as much as possible in our training.
We are going to continue with that. This club comes out of a financial difficult situation. The club needs for the future to get also money in by producing or making players better, getting young players in and to make them better to sell them.
Clement has ignored the Murray Park starlets since he arrived at the club with Ross McCausland getting pushed aside for Fabio Silva.
Robbie Fraser and Cole McKinnon came on after 61 and 76 minutes last night and can now be expected to get the full Nathan Patterson treatment on the back of Clement’s comments.
Whatever plans Clement has he will be lumbered going into next season by last summer’s £15m flops Cyriel Dessers, Sam Lammers and Danilo, all on top wages that they won’t find elsewhere.
Losing the wages of John Lundstram and Kemar Roofe will be welcomed but James Tavernier and Connor Goldson both have two years left on their contracts.
Others such as Ben Davies, Rabbi Matondo, Todd Cantwell and Nico Raskin all have at least two years left to go on their contracts with virtually no prospect of them moving on.
UEFA’s new sustainability rules makes life very difficult for the Ibrox board with Clement letting slip the problems that he is dealing with while the expectation is on him to deliver a place in the Champions League and overtake Celtic domestically.
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7 minutes 30 seconds ‘difficult financial situation’
We said this club comes out of a financial difficult situation and it is not a good situation to have six players out of contract so they don’t have any value to sell and then you need to make decisions if they stay or not. The club needs for the future to get also money in by producing or making players better, getting young players in and to make them better to sell them.
Also for sure out of the academy making players who can be starters in the first team. That needs to be a model that we will build the next couple of years, it is not the work of one week, two weeks, six months, or even one year or two years.
It is an important thing and it was important we gave chances to Ross to be a symbol of the Academy and out of that Cole, Robbie and Johnly and the others they feel it is also possible and it gives belief.
Might be a good time to resurrect this subject: Glasgow football finances.
Rangers* spending in recent years has been astounding.
To the FCF numbers below add -£12m for 2023.Celtic brought in +£41m in FY 2023. https://t.co/HXSZt6htyD
— Rangers Tax-Case (@rangerstaxcase) May 14, 2024
